Fragile
by Proxii Bleu
Summary: After encountering an old enemy Mal is trapped with only River for help - COMPLETE
1. In Every Story There Is A Beginning

Title: Fragile  
  
Author: Proxii Bleu  
  
Spoilers: Season One  
  
Summary: After encountering an old enemy Mal is trapped with only River for help  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Author's Note: Well I originally planned to have a site specifically for FF fics, but the creeps who ran the server decided to cut me loose :( Anyway, enjoy the fic.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, just write about 'em  
  
Fragile by Proxii Bleu  
  
I  
  
"Simon, she's doing it again." It was River Tam standing in the corner of Serenity's cockpit staring at the back of Wash's head as he skillfully piloted the salvave ship through a maze of asteroids that had once been a large planet. The debris was the result of the war between the Independents and The Alliance, but that was a subject that was best left alone as far as the ship's captain was concerned. In the meantime, one of the latest victims of the Alliance was busy driving the small pilot crazy, even though she was doing nothing bu standing in the corner of the room.  
  
"Is she acting strange?" The question came from River's brother Simon who was trying his hand at fine-tuning the artificial gravity filters in the nearby hallway. Normally, his talents lay in medicine, but that wasn't the chosen profession of the current object of his affection. Although, after the whole incident with that former colleague of Zoe and Mal's Kaylee had been distant lately, impressing her with fixed filters was Simon's attempt at making peace.  
  
"You mean besides staring at me?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No, in fact she's acting normal. It's not natural."  
  
"Normal is natural, and it's a sign that River is doing better." Ever since their encounter with Jubal Early, River had been acting more like a seventeen-year-old girl, intead of an escaped inpatient from a government lab. Her sentences had been more coherent, her metaphors were actually starting to make sense, either that or the crew was finally starting to understand the strage code she talked in almost everyday.  
  
"Well normal people don't stare."  
  
"Your mind is like water." Wash turned to look at River who was now sitting on the floor with her eyes tracking his every move.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Your mind is like water, it's clear, smooth, cool, and beautiful. I like to swim in it because it tickles, and makes me laugh." Simon lifted his head enough to look at his sister, and Wash in the meantime inched down into his chair. The crew of the small ship had pretty much figured out what had made River so valuable to the Alliance in the first place, the only thing was that it was rather disturbing to have a live telepath aboard a ship. Less and only one that seemed to take regular trips into the minds of everyone present. Currently, Wash didn't like to share.  
  
"Okay, well River sometimes people like to keep their watery minds to themselves, so why not go swim with Zoe?"  
  
"Too clouded, wants to make waters of her own."  
  
"Oookaaayy, Jayne?"  
  
"Too much red."  
  
"Kaylee?"  
  
"Too much Simon." A clang and a half-muttered curse sounded from the hallway. River giggled.  
  
"Simon?"  
  
"Too much Kaylee."  
  
"Book?"  
  
"Secrets, and riddles, and traps that pinch my feet. I'd drown there."  
  
"Inara?"  
  
"Waters are painful, deep, sorrowed. Too turbulent to tread across." Okay that was interesting, even more than what River had said about Book. At any rate, that left only one person.  
  
"Mal?" River shook her head hard, sending her long hair flying about her head in a dark cloud.  
  
"Why, is his mind too turbulent?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then what?"  
  
"Waters that I cannot enter, or ever cross. His mind is closed to me, unless he wants me to enter." Wash frowned. As far as he knew telepahts could read just about anybody's mind, but for River to unable to see into Mal's that meant that most of the science fiction he had read on the subject wasn't very accurate.  
  
"Why not stay in your mind? You know give everyone some space?"  
  
"I was in my mind for four years Wash," she was lucid for the moment. "I have no intention of dwelling there again anytime soon."  
  
"Well, at any rate not everyone likes having their minds read."  
  
"No more than one likes having theirs cut up like steak." Wash's stomach did a somersault at the thought, and then concentrated on the controls.  
  
"Here, instead of playing in my water, why not try to fly the ship?" River smiled broadly, and skipped over to the large panel where the ship's controls were located. Climbing out of his seat, Wash let River sit down, and showed her what to do.  
  
***  
  
Malcolm Reynolds enjoyed sleep. It was not often that he was able to entertain the luxury, but when he was able, he went for it. Already in the past two weeks he had three good runs, out of debt for once, and even had credits to work with. River was acting more or less normal, Simon wasn't making too much of a boob of himself, Kaylee had been able to fix the air filters on the ship, Book wasn't annoying him with his religion, Inara was content with a client she had picked up on Miriam, and Zoe...well that was why he was now awake. Layely, his first officer had been acting rather strange.  
  
It had all started when they had visited an orphanage on Miriam when they went to drop off Inara. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a bunch of poor kids in a building, but since they had come back Zoe had been moody, morose, and less than cordial towards her husband. Only last night she had tossed Wash out of their quarters after he had been yet again unable to figure out why she was so unhappy. Mal usually stayed out of Zoe's personal business, but if things didn't turn around soon he was going to step into the middle of their mess and Mal was pretty sure that they wouldn't like that.  
  
Although, he would.  
  
Smiling, Mal turned over onto his side to stretch out when his world went upside down, right-side up, upside down, and finally right-side up again. Cursing like a madman, Mal threw on his pants, grabbed a shirt, and raced up the stairs of his quarters. Barreling down the hall he jumped over Jayne who was lying stunned in the middle of the corridor, mowed down Book who was in the way, and stormed into Serenity's cockpit.  
  
"What the hell is going on here?" At the controls sat River who was grinning wildly at Wash who was pale-faced and clinging to a support beam on the ceiling. "Why is River at the gorram helm?"  
  
"Because I was giving her a piloting lesson?"  
  
"You're letting a crazy girl fly a ship through an asteriod belt, no wait that would make you crazy! What is wrong with you?"  
  
"I was just-"  
  
"I DON'T CARE! ON THIS SHIP THERE IS ONLY ONE PILOT, AND THAT-" yelled Mal pointing at River. "IS NOT IT!"  
  
"I'm not broken!" This time is was River's turn to yell, something that was loud, and surprising enough to catch Mal's attention, and stop Simon in his tracks. "I am not something that is stupid, and useless! I cannot help that I am not the way I was, I will never be the way I was! I just want to be seen like I see you! I want to be seen as real!" With that River ran from the cockpit screaming and crying. Her wails echoing through the ship even from her spot in the corner of her room. Closing his mouth, Mal turned to find Simon, Wash, Zoe, and a rumpled Kaylee glaring at him with sharp expressions on their faces.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing," said Zoe. "I just realized what a jackass looks like."  
  
II  
  
River was beyond upset. No amount of cajoling, peacemaking, or apologizing was able to put her into a better mood. Simon had even tried bribing her with a piece of real chocolate from the box Inara had bought back from her meeting with her client, but not even the prospect of a sweet goody had been enough to coax her out of her room.   
  
Instead she just sat there on her bed drawing strange pictures, and muttering to herself while the world went by outside her door. On the third day of her self-imposed solitude, Jayne wandered by in search of Simon to stitch closed a wound on his hand from where he had cut himself while cleaning a knife when he saw River out of the corner of his eye with a pair of scissors. The last time she had something sharp he earned a nice long scar across his chest. Not taking any precautions, the mercenary ran down the hall, into the medbay, where he almost knocked Simon down.  
  
"What in the 'verse had gotten into you?"  
  
"That ruttin sister of yours has a scissors!"  
  
"What?" Jayne just stared at him.  
  
"I said your sister, has a pair of scissors. You do know what they are don't ya?" Simon dropped the pan he had been holding, and headed straight for River's room. When he got there, the door had been locked. Fearing what she might do, Simon hurled himself against the flimsy screen, in an effort to break it down. Instead, he merely bounced off of it.  
  
"RIVER!" No answer. Simon kicked, hit, and threw himself against the door. "RIVER OPEN THE DOOR! RIVER WHAT MAL SAID ISN'T WORTH KILLING YOURSELF OVER! HE'S A STUPID, SHORT-MINDED MAN WITH A QUESTIONABLE SET OF MORALS...DAMNIT RIVER OPEN THE DOOR!!!" Mal who had been standing in the hallway since the first shout of 'River' watched the doctor batter the door mercilessly.  
  
"Captain?" Zoe had appeared out of her own quarters, and watched the scene until she felt that it was time to put the younger man out of his misery. Mal noticed the look that his officer was giving him, stepped between Simon and the door, and with very little effort easily slid it open. Inside sat River on her bed with a mirror, neatly clipping off the ends of her long hair with the scissors. A little pile of snarled curls lay next to her, what was left of her tresses had been cropped down until they were no longer than her brother's. Mal studied the scene calmly before turning to the medic.  
  
"It appears that your sister's hair has lost the will to live." Zoe snickered as Simon raced into the room, and pulled the scissors out of River's grasp.  
  
"Why are you doing this Mei-Mei?"  
  
"Because I wanted to."  
  
"Because of Mal?"  
  
"No, because of her." River held up a picture form a magizine slip showing a girl with hair cut almost the smae as River's. Letting out a sigh of relief, Simon hugged his sister tight, while carefully tucking the scissors into the back of his pants.  
  
"Oh, River. I thought you were hurting yourself." River pulled back from her brother, and calmly said:  
  
"You are an idiot."  
  
"Why I think that's the first sane thing your sister has said all day." quipped Mal from the doorway. Inara who had been peering around the corner chose this time to interject.  
  
"You know, I can finish straightening up that style for you, so that you'll look just like the girl in the picture."  
  
"Really?" A large smile broke River's face.  
  
"Really." The companion led the girl back to her shuttle, while the rest of the crew meandered off. Simon stepped out into the hallway, only to be stopped by Mal.  
  
"Now, what was all that about me being a stupid, amoral, short-minded man?"  
  
***  
  
"Oh Zoe?" Wash skipped around the corner with the latest pile of mail for the crew downloaded from the Cortex. In it were bills, wanted posters, and one was for Mal citing a prospective job out on Harvest. However, in the mix was a letter to Zoe that was marked 'confidential'. Usually, the couple shared everything, and so naturally Wash was curious about what it contained.  
  
"What?" Zoe was sitting in the mess sipping a cup of coffee, staring at nothing. Wash put the flexi down on the table in fron of her, and waited for her to open it. Zoe took the letter in her hands, read the address, and got up from the table.  
  
"Wait, we're not going to read it together?"  
  
"No, it's private." Wash nearly tripped over hiself as he got up to trail behind his wife.  
  
"Private? Sweetie, I thought we shared everything."  
  
"Some things a woman wants to keep to herself."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
"None of your business." Wash bit down on the inside of his lower lip, and glared at Zoe as she busied about their quarters, picking up odds and ends, while keeping the letter safely next to her. Wash was a very paranoid little man, and right now he was pretty sure that his worst fear had come true - Zoe had found someone else.  
  
"I want to see that letter."  
  
"No."  
  
"Zoe, you know I trust you, but there are times where I can be very immature and insecure. This is one of those times."  
  
"That's your problem."  
  
"Zoe-"  
  
"Look, it's none of your business, so just let it go!"  
  
"If there is something wrong with my wife, it IS my business."  
  
"Fuck you."  
  
"I would, but I cant until I see that letter."  
  
"I said no." While arguing with her husband, Zoe had tossed the flexi onto the bed. Seeing his opportunity, Wash dived for it, and crowed as he zipped to the other side of the room with his prize in hand.  
  
"Ah-ha!" Zoe glared at Wash with a look that could have killed, her legs taking long sharp steps across the floor until she was three feet away from Wash.  
  
"I wouldn't push that button sweetie."  
  
"Oh really," Wash hit the button. "What are you going to do?"  
  
***  
  
"You broke his arm!" Mal stood in the medbay watching as Simon patched up Wash's arm. In the corner stood Zoe with a bemused smile on her face, as Mal ranted at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Have you lost your mind?"  
  
"No sir, my mind is fine."  
  
"Then why is our pilot in medbay?"  
  
"Because she wouldn't let me read a letter that she got from some guy over on Miriam! Come one Zoe, all you have to do is just tell me the truth, was it my immaturity? The dinosaurs? I have to know why you're seeing another guy."  
  
"I'm not seeing someone else."  
  
"Then why break my arm over a crummy letter."  
  
"It's personal."  
  
"SHUT UP!" The room queted down as Mal let out a long sigh. "look we have to be on Harvest in three hours to do a run, and I plan on getting there with a pilot and a first officer capable of acting like adults. Zoe, where is the letter."  
  
"In my quarters."  
  
"I want to see it."  
  
"No."  
  
"No?"  
  
"Yes sir, the answer is no."  
  
"Zoe, I am your commanding officer."  
  
"I know."  
  
"This is mutiny."  
  
"I know."  
  
"So, why not get the letter and we can all be happy, and Wash here can be sure of the fact that you aren't cheating on him."  
  
"Mmm, no."  
  
"Zoe."  
  
"I knew it," Simon sighed as Wash hopped off the bed. "This Ralph Odland guy, he's your lover isn't he? I'll kill him!"  
  
"Wash you're not killing anyone."  
  
"He touched my wife."  
  
"Well naturally he would have," Everyone turned to look at Simon who was putting his supplies away. "The only Ralph Odland I know of on Miriam is an OB/GYN. You know, a 'lady doctor'?" Mal's eyebrows hit his hairline, Wash paled, and Zoe glared at the doctor.  
  
"You mean all of this was over some thing with a doctor? Why not just tell Wash, and shut him up?"  
  
"Because if he read the letter he would have know why I went, and then Inara, Kaylee, Simon, River, Jayne, Book, and you in that order."  
  
"If you wanted a simple pelvic exam-" Zoe threw a wad of gauze at Simon.  
  
"I didn't go for that, I want because I wanted to find out if I could have a baby, and it seems I already have one!"  
  
Wash fainted. 


	2. River Escapes and Finds Something

Fragile by Proxii Bleu  
  
III  
  
"Well that would explain what River said." The crew was now sitting in the mess eating dinner, all with the exception of River, Simon, and Inara who were all dining aboard the Companion's shuttle. Jayne hadn't said a word sine he'd heard the news, Kaylee was more hyper than usual, and Book was solemnly silent. Zoe on the other hand was eyeing the large amount of food Wash had piled onto her plate. Pregnant or not there was not way she would be able to eat over four helpings of food.  
  
"What did River say?" asked Mal as he forked some imitation potatoes into his mouth. Wash edged Zoe's plate cloer to her, and attacked his own meal.  
  
"She said that Zoe's mind was too clouded because she wanted to make her own waters. I thought she was babbling, but now-"  
  
"It's obvious then that the girl merely picked up on what was on Zoe's mind," said Book. "But whatever the Alliance did to her has left her inacapable of communicating her insights clearly." Mal drained his glass of water, and refilled it from the pitcher on the table.  
  
"But that's what has me worried," he said as he relieved Zoe of some of her potatoes. "When the time comes where she is capable of communicating clearly. It's obvious that she has no control over this thing of hers."  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." said Wash softly.   
  
"Excuse me?" said Mal. Kaylee looked up from her plate, and over at the pilot. River was a good friend of hers, even though there were times when she could be incredibly weird. It didn't bother her much that River was a seer, there were readers in her family, but like Mal had said - they had control over it.  
  
"Well when she was talking to me in the cockpit she said that she couldn't get into your mind, not unless she had your say-so. She also gave me the impression that she can keep out of Inara and Jayne's as well because they're - " Wash broke off, and stared down at the table.  
  
"Because they're what Wash?"  
  
"Troubled, and they make her sad."  
  
"Oh." Mal went back to his meal, and about five minutes of silence stretched between them. River wasn't exactly dangerous, not so long as she was kept out of the hands of the Alliance, but like most people Mal liked to think that he could keep to himself. If the youngest Tam was unable or unwilling to get into his mind he honestly wanted to know why, also he wondered about what she had meant about Inara's mind being troubled. He knew that Jayne had problems, or as Simon put it - issues, but the Companion? He figured it just showed that you really didn't know a person as well as you thought.  
  
"You think she's dangerous?" Kaylee's voice intruded on his thoughts. Looking over at her, Mal shook his head, and scraped up the last of his food with his fork. For a person who was supposedly eating for two, Zoe had given Mal most of her food. Although, given the amount he didn't really blame her.  
  
"If River were dangerous, she wouldn't be on this ship. I think that as she stays away from the Alliance whatever they did to make her like she is now has been wearing off, but I prefer that we continue to keep an eye on her just to be sure she doesn't do anything untoward."  
  
"You mean cut me up again?" asked Jayne. Mal nodded solemnly as the crew got up, put the dishes in the washer, and headed off to various parts of the ship. No one bothered to look up to see the thin form wrapped around the pipes hanging from the ceiling, but the shadowed figure noted the worry in Book's mind as he headed back to his quarters. Jubal Early for all of his insanity and violence had not been lying when he said that Preacher Book was not a Shepard, and the person hanging off of the pipes knew this all to well. Whether or not he was truly part of the only organization that posed a threat to the Alliance was something that was buried so deep in Books mind, that the small spy could not find it.  
  
Yet.  
  
IV  
  
Harvest was a small world at the very edge of the territories with a history of raids by Reavers, pirates, and Alliance personnel when it suited their agendas. Other than that it was a beautiful blue planet with large oceans, and continents that were nothing more than large islands hovering in the middle of the blue explanse.  
  
Wash put Serenity down next to the XaiXai market where their contact was supposed to meet them. According to the message they had received on the Cortex, they were to transport three passengers for one client, feed for various cattle for another, and the third wanted them to pick up a crate of electronic equipment for delivery to their wharehouse. All in all it would be a good haul for the crew, with plenty of credits to earn.  
  
With their most popular fugitives on board Simon would have to try and stay out of sight as much as possible, while River had changed in appearance entirely. Her long black hair was gone, close-cropped, and tinted on the ends with little strands of purple just like the girl in the magazine flexi. Inara had shown her how to apply some basic color to her eyes and cheeks, and with a litte color to her lips she looked like a completely different person.  
  
Mal let out a low whistle as River slowly walked down the loading dock of the ship, and stood staring out at the small market. Her brown eyes following everything as she took in the environment, a small foot hovered overthe edge of the ramp when Mal stopped her.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?"  
  
"Out."  
  
"With the entire Alliance looking for you?"  
  
"I don't look like what the Alliance wants." That much was true, River did look different, but there was always a chance. Mal decided to use a different angle. Leading her back up the ramp, Mal drew her into a corner within earshot of her brother.  
  
"River, now lately you have been a little better than you were when you fist came aboard."  
  
"I am a lot better, not so many voices speaking, I can make them quiet."  
  
"I know that, but only a month ago you said that purple elephants were flying."  
  
"They were, but you did not comprehend, or understand." Mal sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. If River Tam was anything she was irritating.  
  
"River there are more voices out there than on Serentiy, and you might get overwhelmed and sick again. Do you want that?"  
  
"No, but I cannot stay buried forever." With that she stalked away from Mal angrily, her back stiff as she brushed past Zoe who merely raised an eyebrow at River's retreating form.  
  
"Something go wrong?"  
  
"Mal told her she couldn't go outside." said Simon as he checked through his list of supplies he needed for his medbay. Some of them he might not be able to afford, others would probably be on the black market, and some he most likely would be able to make himself from the local herbal plantlife if the ingredients were available. Wash rolled down the ramp on the mule, and looked over at Zoe who was sliding a .45 into one of her holsters. The mule went down the ramp, without Wash leaving jayne to chase after it.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?"  
  
"Out with Mal."  
  
" You? With my baby."  
  
"Your baby?" Zoe just stared at her husband. "I see, so you concieved this child all on your own with no help from me whatsoever? Strange, I thought the doctor said that there was more to it." Wash rubbed his eyes, and shook his head.  
  
"I meant our baby, but-" he yelled in frustration. "okay, Zoe when a woman is pregnant she isn't supposed to go out into a dangerous market filled with scum carrying a gun, it makes her a target, and it makes the baby a victim. Is it so bad to stay behind for once?" Mal strode down from his perch on the stairs, and joined the two.  
  
"Wash has a point Zoe, it's not safe for you to be wandering around in your...condition."  
  
"It's not a condition sir."  
  
"Well look, River's been getting antsy about going out to stretch her legs, and while Kaylee can be right responsible at times she can't handle River all by herself when she has a fit."  
  
"You want me to watch Simon's sister?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why not have Simon do it?"  
  
"Because he needs to get some supplies, so that the next time one of us gets shot he can actaully do something besides move over and let Book give us our last rights." Zoe let out a sigh of defeat, and turned to look at River who was smiling innocently from her seat on the catwalk.  
  
"Honey, just think of it as practice for when out little one is born, and starts stretching it's legs." Wash looked over at the Doctor. "It will have legs won't it?" Simon smiled patiently.  
  
"In another three months, right now it's just goo." Wash smiled at his wife.  
  
"We have our own goo." Mal adopted a pained expression as Wash went back to the mule, and headed off with Jayne to pick up their cargo. Zoe scratched her neck, and turned around.  
  
"You married him why?"  
  
"Because sir, I love him, and he makes me laugh." Mal just shook he head, and walked off into the market.  
  
V  
  
Watching River was hard.  
  
Zoe sat on Kaylee's lawn chair on the ramp of Serenity trying to keep a close eye on Simon's sister. So far River had made a giant map out of the loose yellow clay of the local area, even though she had never set foot on it beyond the salvage ship. Played hide-and-go-seek with Kaylee until Zoe had told them to knock it off NOW, because the noise was incredible, and currently was lying on her side admist her dirt-map sleeping in the shade of the afternoon sun.  
  
Zoe shifted unfomfortably in her seat as she tried to think of something other than using the bathroom, less and only food since her stomach was feeling rather queasy. Kaylee was sitting on the ground next to River with a blissed-out look on her face, her eyes almost glazed over as she stared at the waters of a large lake in the distance.  
  
Zoe twisted in her seat once more before she decided that she needed to use a bathroom ASAP, before Kaylee had a wet lawn chair.  
  
"Kaylee?" The ship's engineer snapped out of her reverie, and looked up at Zoe.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Could you keep an eye on River for a minute, while I go check on something?"  
  
"Sure." Kaylee watched Zoe race up the stairs, and then turned back to her water-watching. River was sitting up.  
  
"Want to play hide-and-seek again?" she asked. Kaylee shifted in her seat on the ground, and shrugged.  
  
"Okay, but this time you hide first." River smiled, and took off into a clump of bushes. Turning her back, Kaylee started counting down from twenty, a bog smile creeping across her pale features as she already started calculating the most likely spot in which River was hiding.  
  
***  
  
Ten minutes later Zoe returned from her little trip to the bathroom, and strode down the loading ramp. She was only halfway down when Kaylee came running in with panic written all over her face. River was nowhere to be seen, which meant only one thing.  
  
"I thought I told you to watch her!"  
  
"I did, we were playing hide-and-seek, and when I went to find her I couldn't!"  
  
"Did you find her before?"  
  
"Yes, but the third time I couldn't!" Zoe looked out at the open expanse in front of her, and then down at her flat front. If this was any indication of what motherhood was going to be like, then Wash was a dead man when he got back to Serenity. Dragging Kaylee behind her Zoe shut up the large ship, and headed for the nearby market in order to find River.  
  
"Shouldn't we tell Mal?" asked Kaylee as she tried to keep up with Zoe. "He's in the market, maybe he could find her?" Admitting that she had lost Simon's sister was not something Zoe wanted to do, but Kaylee had a point. Radioing Mal, she mentally bit the bullet as his voice came in over the comm.  
  
"Mal."  
  
"What is it Zoe?"  
  
"River gave us the slip, and headed into the market."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"She's in the market, most likely - okay I don't know where the most likely place for her to be is, but just try thinking like a seventeen-year-old girl." With that she cut the link before Mal could gather himself enough to start screaming at her through the comm.  
  
VI  
  
"Gorram girl doesn't have any ruttin sense." Mal wandered through the market trying aimlessly to think like River, and figure out where the girl had headed. It wasn't hard to imagine that she had given Zoe and Kaylee the slip, hell she had managed to escape those blue-handed freaks sent after he by the Alliance, but that aside wandering around in a market was not good for her.  
  
If she was what her brother and the rest of the crew thought she was then being in an environment with so much stimuli could overwhelm her, and send her spiraling back into the mess they had fist found her in. It had taken almost eight months for the trauma she had endured to start wearing off, and even now she was still recovering. A market was no place for her to be.  
  
Mal turned another corner, and found himself looking down a street lined with shops filled with clothes, trinkets, pets, and basically things that had drawn a large crowd of young people who were mainly in River's age group.  
  
Bingo.  
  
Weaving through the crowd, Mal peered into the booths looking for a certain purple-headed mind reader. Each one was devoid of her, until he reached a small booth filled with odds and ends that had been gathered from different colonies. Most of them were old doo-dads that no one used anymore, such as old tech, and so forth. But in the back there were 'rarities', a term usually used in reference to items that were supposedly smuggled out of Alliance archaeological digs where alien artifacts had been found. Mal didnt buy into the whole 'not alone in the 'verse' schtick, but there were some such as River who was standing in the corner arguing with the shop keeper over some large gold disc.  
  
Pushing his way through the crowd, Mal came up behind River and peered down at the disc she was holding. It was the size of a platter with odd symbols drawn on its surface. To Mal it looked like a cheap forgery, but there was something about it that had River engaged in the heated battle with the owner of the shop in order to purchase it.  
  
"Fifteen credits." he snarled.  
  
"Ten."  
  
"Fifteen."  
  
"Twelve, my final offer."  
  
"Fifteen is mine." Mal slid his chip across the counter, and smiled boradly at the burly red-necked man in the sweaty t-shirt.  
  
"Here's twelve, now either take it and quit bothering my little girl, or we can discuss prices in the back" Mal pushed back the edge of his coat revealing his gun. The man swiped the money off of the cloudy glass, and dumped it in the register.  
  
"Fine, you got your disc, now beat it."   
  
"Gladly." Mal grabbed River by the arm, and hauled her out of the shop. If she noticed that he was mad at her it didn't show as she was apparently focused on the disc, her hands running over it's smooth surface as she toyed with the black symbols.  
  
"It's very old."   
  
"Your not listening is getting old. Do you know what kind of danger you're in?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then why did you do this?"  
  
"Because I wanted to know why the Alliance wanted me so badly."  
  
"And wandering around in a market it going to tell you that?"  
  
"No," said River holding up her disc. "This is." Mal stared at the disc again, it didn't look like most forgeries he had seen, and in fact it looked somewhat authentic. Nervous Mal took it from River, and looked at it more closely. If he didn't know any better it looked like the object was made out of pure gold, the symbols on it's sruface created by some sort of etching tool that had created a black resin inside of the glyphs. Stars, galaxies, and writing was displayed on it's front while on the back the bottom looked like the underside of a vid-disc. Frowning he handed it back to River who tucked it inside of her shirt, and headed out of the market.   
  
There were times when River Tam could babble on four hours in code and metaphor, but only when she was lucid did Malcolm Reynolds actually feel uneasy around the small genius. Hopefully, the disc really was just a piece of junk, and not something important.  
  
However, if he had turned around he would have noticed two well-dressed men with blue hands entering the little shop, and if the noise hadn't been so loud he would have heard the owner's agonized scream. 


	3. A Warning and Revelations

Fragile by Proxii Bleu  
  
VII  
  
When Mal and River finally made it back to Serenity, Wash was pacing back and forth across the loading ramp, his face contorted with worry. Kaylee was trying to calm him down, but the words just went through one ear and out the other. Zoe was nowhere to be seen, but Inara was staring hard at Mal as he walked towards the ship, and soon he realized why. Not only were their passengers there, but apparently they had enough money to afford some Alliance guards to travel with them. That right there explained why Wash was doing the pacing instead of Simon.  
  
Mal put a forced grin on his face, and hoped that River's appearance had changed enough for her not to be immediately recognized by the two men standing on either side of the small family. Mal stepped out of the glare of the sunlight, and then realized something about the way the men were dressed - they were wearing purple uniforms.  
  
"Purple elephants are flying." That was what River had said only a month or so ago. Mal frowned heavily, and strode up the loading ramp with the younget Tam in tow. The two guards turned around, and stared at Mal as he stood there in the shadow of the loading bay door watching the small family with half-hearted interest.  
  
"Can we help you?" asked one of the guards. Mal smiled broadly.  
  
"Why sure, you can let me on my own ship." Wash pushed past the captain, and edged into the bay. One of the guards stopped him.  
  
"I thought you said the other woman was in charge?"  
  
"Zoe? She is, she's-"  
  
"My second-in-command when I'm not around. I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds, this is Serenity. The woman smiled at Mal warmly, her blue eyes dancing as she looked about the darkened interior of the ship. Her son next to her was about the same height as Wash with dark hair, and eyes like his mother. There was not father, and no other siblings...just a family of two like their message had said. The woman herself was tall, a full three inches over Mal's head, with pale blonde hair, and skin that was so thin he could see the veins in places. As the Captain stared at her he noticed that there was something about her eyes that just wasn't right. As if sensing his unease the woman smiled warmly, and extended her hand.  
  
"Hello Captain, my name is Selma Ennes, your ship is Firelfly class?"  
  
"Yep, and runs better than your standard luxury class." Selma grinned and stepped into the ship, the guards always at her side. For men who were supposed to be merely escorting a woman and her son, Wash noted that they were carrying .45 automatics, and never took their eyes off of their charge. If the pilot didn't know any better it would seem that they were somehow afraid of Miss. Ennes. In the meantime Mal led her into the ship.  
  
"The crew takes their meals in the mess, you're welcome to join us, and the guest quarters are on the same level as the crew's. Where are you headed?" Ennes' eyes slid back to her escorts, and shrugged.  
  
"I'll decided after a few days, for now I would prefer to just ride for now. I will be compensating you for any extra days should they arise." Mal nodded, and then looked at the guards.  
  
"Will they be joining you?"  
  
"No, they are merely my escorts. You're dismissed." The men nodded smartly, and left. There was something about this that Mal didn't like, but he had plenty of time to figure it out. In the meantime they had a schedule to keep.  
  
"Wash load her up." Serenity's hydraulics groaned audibly as the loading bay door was raised, and the overhead lock lowered in place. Kaylee stood off to the side watching to make sure everything went smooth, while Wash secured the mule. River in the meantime was still following behind Mal, her eyes never leaving Selma who seemed just as interested in River, as the other was in her.  
  
As soon as the doors were closed, and Wash had left to start preparing for liftoff, Mal decided to press the issue about the Alliance guards.  
  
"What's with the goons when you came here?" Selma smiled as she followed Mal to the guest quarters, and set her duffel bag down on her bed. Her son was in the room across the hall, and seemed to have an aptitude for silence.  
  
"Well I've lived on both Alliance worlds, and on Independents. If you're wondering I was neutral in the war, as for my quards I like to follow the old saying about keeping your friends close, and your enemies closer."  
  
"How many enemies do you have?" Selma brushed a yellow lock of hair out of her eyes and shrugged.  
  
"Lets just say I have enough that I'm a widow, and have nights where I lay awake wondering if everything I've done, not matter how good the intentions was the right thing to do." Mal looked down at the floor, it was as if she was talking about him, but not. He couldn't out words to it.  
  
"Yeah, I know what you mean. What do you do for a living?"  
  
"By day?"  
  
"Well, yeah let's start with that."  
  
"I work as an archaeologist."  
  
"And by night?" Selma smiled, and walked over to where Mal stood. Again he got that same strange feeling from her as if she was staring at him naked, instead of dressed in dusty work clothes.  
  
"Well captain, there are some things that a lady prefers to keep to herself." With that she slid the door to her room shut, leaving Mal standing out in the hall by himself. Turning around, he started to hed to the loading bay to check on the cargo, when he bumped into River.  
  
"Hey, you're supposed to be in your room."  
  
"She is not what she seems." Mal' smile vanished as he stared at River.   
  
"What?"  
  
"She is not what she seems."  
  
"What is she then?" River struggled to say something coherent, but the damage inflicted on her mind caused a string of code to come out instead.  
  
"She is everything I am not. I am broken, my mind still unable to gather all of the ocean's drops so that I may see again. I have...cupfuls of water, and as I pour them into the chasm they begin to fill in, and flow to make me a River again." Mal really wasn't good at riddles, but if Wash said was true, then this was the only way River could communicate when the damaged parts of her mind tried to work as they had before.  
  
"And how is she like you? Because her ocean is dried up?"  
  
"No, her ocean is full, and ripe with life. She is like me because she can look into the waters of others, and see what is beneath the waves. She it not like me because her ocean is uniform, I am still carrying cupfuls to the edge of the shore." With that River turned, and walked down the hallway glumly. Inside, she knew what she was trying to say, but as usual it came out in a string of gibberish that Mal would either never figure out, or write off as a result of the damage done to her mind.  
  
At any rate, this time it was up to her to keep an eye on everything that the crew didn't see. Especially since the vulture was flying close behind, and would soon overtake them in the night. But hopefully it would be slain by the blue hands, and they in turn by the vulture as it struggled against it's Death.  
  
***  
  
Shepard Book wandered around the darkened corridors of Serenity, his mind turning over the events of the day as he walked. This time of night (even though it was always night in space), the ship was queit, and he did not have to worry to much about being bothered by one of the crew. Today had been interesting, he had found some old books on Taoism, entertained a troubled young man until his problems had quieted, and had still enough time to look at some new weapons designs while on the prowl.  
  
The only thing that he could think of that was even remotely out of the ordinary was seeing his old colleague Stam, after years of absence. Normally he would have gone over, and reminisced about their times together in the service, but there was something about his old friend's appearance that had stopped him in his tracks, and caused him to duck into a nearby alley.  
  
Stam had been wearing blue gloves.  
  
At first Book had not believed his eyes, but there they were in all of their latex glory. He had always assumed the Stam had as little use for the Alliance as Book's employers, but it appeared the he had been wrong. As a result he was thankful that he had never tried to recruit the other man, doing so might have put too many people at risk, including the other group that had been responsible for aiding River's brother in her escape.  
  
There were many things that the Preacher knew about, and subjects that would never cross his lips again. But he had known all about River Tam and her brother, long before her brother Simon had ever set foot aboard Serenity. His position on the ship was convienient, and the result of strategic planning. There was no coincidence involved, but River did worry him. There were times when he was sure that she suspected something, but never a word crossed her lips. Then again, most of the time she was trapped in her own mind as a result of residual damage to her frontal lobe, the area of the brain that controlled speech.  
  
It was no surprise that she was incapable of coherent speech, over time her condition would probably improve, but she would never be able to speek with the same clarity as she had before they had performed their procedures on her. Book shook his head sadly, and walked into the mess where a famliar face greeted him from the shawdows. Smiling grimly he strode over to the sink, and pured himself a glass of water.  
  
"Hello Selma, I see that you've left Daradanelles." The archaeologist smiled from where she stood leaning against the wall, and ran a slim finger around the lip of her cup.  
  
"It's been a long time, what name are you going by now? Or should I say profession?"  
  
"My name is Shepard Book, and that is all you need to know."  
  
"For now." Selma sat down at the table, and sipped her coffee. It was imitation, not the real stuff that she had drank while living on Ariel, but she was the type of person who appreciated whatever she had on hand.  
  
"You're following them." It wasn't a question, rather a statement. Selma shruffed, and set down her mug.  
  
"I helped her brother when he needed me too. If I hadn't our organization would have lost a valuable human being to the Alliance. You and I know very well what they were going to do to her, and you know why. Probably more than I do." Book smiled, and helped himsef to his water. It wasn't often he got to talk to an old friend, less and only one he could be certain was on the same side as himself.  
  
"I have heard rumors, but there is no way to confirm them. Any of our operatives who have reached that level of information have either been neautralized, crossed over, or are in so deep that they are unable to relay any information lest they put themselves at risk. You know this better than anyone." Selma twisted her wedding ring around her finger, and looked sadly over at the window in the far corner.  
  
"Bruce was the best man I ever knew. There aren't many like him."  
  
"No, there aren't. I'm sure our group felt his loss deeply."  
  
"More than you know. I can see how hard it is on Jordan, I can 'feel' how hard it is on him at times, but I can't change what happened. Only make it count for something." The two sat in silence for a few minutes more, before Book cleared his throat.  
  
"What brings you here exactly? Last I heard you were headed to Cottle?"  
  
"River."  
  
"Ah, do you think that you can help her?"  
  
"Maybe, if I can get close enough to her, but if the damage is too severe I don't think there would be anything I could do for her."  
  
"From what I've seen she appears to be healing herself. It's taking time, but each day I notice a visible change. She's been more coherent, lucid, there are times when she can actually conjugate a sentence." Selma smiled broadly.  
  
"That's a good sign. But what of the data that we gleaned from Robson?"  
  
"The disc was supposed to be in a shop somewhere here on Harvest, however by the time I got there operatives from the PSIOPS program had laready terminated the owner."  
  
"Sonic wand?"  
  
"Precisely." Selma shook her head, and stretched until the bones popped in her back.  
  
"I know that someone has to have it, according to one of our men who was on watch, he thinks that it might have been purchased since the observation drone sent back an image indicating that it was gone from under the counter where it had been stored."  
  
"Do we know who purchased it?"  
  
"No, but I believe that we will find out sooner rather than later." Book nodded, and rose from his seat.  
  
"I would love to finish this conversation, but now is the time when the ship's engineer starts wandering around looking for something to fix, or someone to talk to."  
  
"Let me guess, duty calls?" Book chuckled, and walked out of the mess hall. Selma rose from her seat, and started heading out into the corridor when something stopped her. Looking about she tried to locate the dusturbance, but saw nothing. Shaking her head, she walked out of the mess, but not before looking up at the ceiling where a darked shadow was twisted about the pipes. Smiling, she wandered off into her room, and began to plan.  
  
***  
  
Mal lay in bed thinking about the events of the day. River's odd warning, Selma's strange vibes. There was something about what River said that made sense, but in what context still eluded him. How was Selma like her? How was Selma not like her? Or was the comparison the result of the damage done to her mind. Rolling over on his side, Mal came face-to-face with a pair of white legs. Letting out a startled yell, he jumped out of bed, and turned on the light.  
  
River stood next to Mal's bed staring at him quizzically, her brown eyes following him as he jerked a sheet off of the bed, and wrapped it around himself. River sat down on his bed, yogi style, and waited patiently for the captain to calm down.  
  
"River what are you doing in here?"  
  
"I cannot sleep."  
  
"That's not my problem."  
  
"Yes it is, I cannot sleep because the vulture is coming." Mal's mouth turned down, and soon his body followed as he collapsed on the mattress. It was obvious that she wasn't going to leave, and trying to force her out might attract the attention of the mysterious archaeologist.  
  
"River there are no vultures in space."  
  
"Yes there is, he flys everywhere, searching for fresh meat. He is never satisfied, and always hungers for more." Mal sighed.  
  
"Are you talking about Reavers River?"  
  
"I am not talking about feral wolves Mal, I am talking about the Vulture."  
  
"River, I don't know what you're saying, I can't understand you. You - you talk in code, in metaphors, not everyone says things this way." The younger Tam shook her head in frustration. Mal grumbled to himself, his eyes wandering around the room in search of something River could use to communicate.   
  
In the corner was a writing flexi.  
  
"Here," Mal got up from the bed, and picked up the small silicone slip and it's stylus. "Use this." Putting the device in front of her he watched as River eagerly scribbled down something. Looking plased, she handed it back to Malcolm.  
  
Can you understand this? Mal nodded as he read the passage, and handed it back to River. Perchance there was some chance of progress.  
  
"Okay River why can't you sleep? Other than this vulture?" River wrote on the flexi, and handed it back.  
  
"The blue hands are searching for me...not so much for me...I am a bonus...but the disc."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because it is real, it is outside of what we see, and they think that they can harness it. They are really stupid." Mal laughed at what she had written, and then returned the slip.  
  
"Okay, can you tell me who the blue hands are?"  
  
"PSIOPS, they work within the Alliance. I am hunted, like so many others. But there are more than they can capture at once, not without revealing their agendas, so the set traps, and I was placed in one."  
  
"Placed, no that's not how traps work River."  
  
"Yes it is, if your father knows the trap is there, and feels that by placing you there he is hiding his shame." Mal's mouth set into a hard line as he read what she had written. No wonder River seemed to hate her past more and more as she recovered.  
  
"What do these PSIOPS want?"  
  
"Everything."  
  
"Like?"  
  
"To cloudy still, holes in my mind."  
  
"Okay, okay. I don't want your mind to get any holier than it is now, but can you tell me who the vulture is?" River wrote something on the flexi, her hands stilling as she let the slip fall from her hands.  
  
"Niska."  
  
VIII  
  
"Zoe you need to eat more." Wash stood in the infirmary trying to hold as still as possible while Simon checked his cast, his eyes following Zoe as she paced back and forth, absently rubbing her midsection.  
  
"I don't need you to keep putting three plates of food in front of me everytime I sit down."  
  
"If I didn't you wouldn't eat at all."  
  
"I eat just fine."  
  
"You need more vitamins."  
  
"If you put one more ground up pill into my coffee honey, I'll strangle you with my bare hands."  
  
"Ahem." Simon cleared his throat, catching the couple's attention. Zoe stopped her pacing, Wash quit whining, and for once there was some actual slience in the medbay. Simon took a flexi out of one of his drawers, and gave it to Zoe.  
  
"Here is a list of the supplements you need to take daily, and the amounts of food you should be eating during each trimester. Hopefully this will stop this go se once and for all." Wash stared at the flexi in Zoe's hands.  
  
"It doesn't say anything about morning sickness, or when she kicks me out of the bed in the middle of the night, or why she suddenly says I smell bad." Simon leaned against one of the nearby counters. There were times when being a doctor was a very difficult job.  
  
"The morning sickess should clear up in a month or two, if Zoe is hot at night due to the hormonal changes in her body, Wash you could try lying on top of the blankets, or Zoe you could try sleeping on top and leave Wash on the bottom. As for the smell, in some pregnancies certain odors that are usually non-irritants to women can because intolerable, if this happens, just take an extra shower."  
  
"Thank you doctor." Zoe left with Wash in tow. The two were halfway to mess when they ran into Jayne.  
  
"So, you really did knock her up?" Wash's mouth turned down at the corners as he stared at the mercenary, and resisted an urder to tell him to shove his head up his ass.  
  
"Yes, Zoe is going to have a baby."  
  
"I never woulda believed it if I hadn't heard it from the captain, with you being a woman and all." Wash made for Jayne, only to be stopped by Zoe holding on to the back of his shirt. Stepping forward she stared the mercenary in the eye, her hand resting casually on the hilt of her gun.  
  
"Don't you have someplace to be Cobb? You know checking the cargo, or standing in an airlock?" Jayne's face fell as he realized that Zoe knew about his run-in with Mal, and immediately backed off.  
  
"I was just kidding around."  
  
"Kid elsewhere." Jayne huffed, and strode away towards the loading bay.  
  
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to break up you and your girlfriend's little meeting." Zoe shouted a few nasty sentiments at his retreating backside, and dragged Wash into the kitchen where River, Book, and Selma were already seated having breakfast.  
  
River was there with Selma?  
  
Zoe walked carefully into the room, and helped herself to some eggs and bacon. Wash followed suit, and sat down next to his wife at the table. Selma was quietly drinking her coffe, and reading a small book bound in red leather. Wash noted what she had in her hand, and pointed it out.  
  
"Is that a real book?" Selma nodded.  
  
"Its ancient Earth poetry. Ray Bradbury."  
  
"Shiny, I didn't think books still existed these days." Selma set it down, and took her plate to the sink.  
  
"They're rare, but you can usually find one or two in a few trinket or oddity shops. I restored that one, when I first bought it, the pages were filty, and the outer cover was nothing but two thin pieces of wood clapped together." Wash examined the small vulume, but before he could pick it up it was in River's hands. Book made a grab for it, but she was gone before the preacher even had a chance to get out of his seat. Zoe rose to follow behind her, but Selma held up her hand.  
  
"My book, my responsibility. I'll get it."  
  
"Mal's sister can be very possessive when she gets her hands on something, you might need help." Selma smirked, and drifted out the door.  
  
"I'll be fine." she called behind her. Serenity's corridors were long, dimly lit, and difficult to sneak around in. Selma could already tell where River was at, but finding her was proving difficult. Time to do things the old-fashioned away.  
  
"River?" No answer. "You know when I was a girl, things used to be very confusing for me too." Silence greeted her in the cargo bay.  
  
"When I was thirteen I remember that there was so much noise I could hardly think at times, but as I got older I learned how to enjoy silence." There, in the corner was a small noise. Following it, Selma crept around a crate, and looked down at River who was curled up against the wall. At this distance she could feel the pain, confusion, and fear radiating off of the girl in waves.  
  
Kneeling down, she looked at River. Her blue eyes probing into the girl's dark ones, searching through the mess that was in there. The Alliance had damaged her allright, but not to the point where she couldn't be helped. Reaching out she lay her hand against River's cheek, and sorted through the confusion, pain, and fear until she could feel the girl comprehending what she was doing, and why. The broken pieces falling into place until the ocean began to form from the drops. Closing in on her goal, she was almost there until she felt another presence entering the room. Damn! It was too soon. Giving River what she needed to hopefully finish the process on her own, Selma began to pull her hand away just as Simon jerked her away from his sister.  
  
"What are you doing to her?" River's head had been tilted back, her brown eyes blank as Selma traveled through the broken corridors of her mind. Simon shoved the archaeologist hard, and knelt to examine his sister.  
  
"River are you alright?"  
  
"I was helping her."  
  
"Stay away from her!" Selma opened her mouth to say something else when a hand closed around her wrist, and spun her around. Mal stood there glaring at Ennes with a dark look on his face. She knew that any chance she had of further helping River was gone, and she was right.  
  
"Miss Ennes, you are confined to quarters until further notice. I suggest you start making up your mind on where you and your son want to be dropped off." Selma jerked her arm out of Mal's grip, and stared hard at him.  
  
"I was helping her, she already told you how I could, but you are just too damn stupid to understand. Don't worry, I know the way back to my room." With that she trooped off, Jayne following behind her as she stormed up the stairs. Simon in the meantime had helped River to her feet. She still looked dazed, but there was an unusual clarity in her eyes.  
  
"I was almost an ocean again, but now I am a sea. The droplets more than cupfuls now, flowing steadily into the abyss filling it again."  
  
"You're going to be okay, everything's fine now." River shook her head.   
  
"Not because of you Simon, I have the key now, but the lock is not ready for it. The sea must because calm, before it can become an ocean. Too much drops now, and it will drown me." Simon just nodded, and helped River to the medbay. Out of all the people present Mal was probably the only person why had even a clue of what River was talking about, but currently he had bigger things to worry about.  
  
Heading upstairs, he made his way to the cockpit where Wash was currently engaged in a fierce battle between his plastic dinosaurs. Again, Mal had to wonder why someone like Zoe would even marry someone like Wash, but as the Shepard would say, opposites attract.  
  
"Wash, I need to know if you've detected any ships within our area?"  
  
"Following, or just drifting about while we layover here before heading to Whitehead?"  
  
"Either." Wash put down his toys, and scanned through the information on one of his readout displays.  
  
"Nothing, not even an asteroid. Any reason why?"  
  
"Just keeping my eyes open. Continue with...whatever you were doing." Mal left his pilot to his dinos, and want to see what Inara was up to. He didn't believe that River was wrong, but then again he couldn't be sure if she was picking up on his own personal fears of Niska, or actually detecting something that wasn't there.  
  
At least not there in the physical sense of the word.  
  
Tapping on the door of Inara's shuttle he waited patiently for her to answer. There was no reply. Raising his hand again, he prepared to knock once more but stopped when he heard what sounded like crying from the other side of the door.  
  
Inara was crying? Mal pressed his ear against the metal and listened. His ears weren't decieving him. He remembered what Wash had said about Inara and Jayne's minds, but at the time he had believed that the girl had been wrong about the Companion. Now, he didn't know what to think.  
  
Turning on his heel, Mal left, and headed for his quarters. Maybe everything would make sense in the morning after a good night's sleep. 


	4. The Truth Can Set You Free For A Price

Fragile by Proxii Bleu  
  
VIII  
  
River stood over Simon, watching him sleep. Usually it was the oldest Tam who engaged in this ritual, but this time it was her turn. Normally, River would have been asleep, her mind quiet for once, instead of being filled with all of the static from the crew, but after her encounter with Selma Ennes she had keys now to unlock the floodgates. Now her ocean was nearly whole, just one lock left to be opened, but she knew that she wasnt ready yet.   
  
Her trepidation over crossing the final bridge between wellness, and illness was not due to her inability to adequately control the gifts of her mind, before Ennes that had slowly started to fade away as a problem. But her hesitation was caused by fear, the uncertainty about whether or not she would lose control again, and that was what kept the last gate locked.  
  
However, there would come a time when she would no longer be able to hide, and she would have to come out of the darknes. For now, her condition provided her a unique opportunity to be seen as someone weaker, if only for the purpose of examining someone who was stronger.  
  
Slipping out of the room she shared with Simon, River stepped into the hallway, and looked about cautiously. She really didn't need her eyes, but it was a force of habit, and one that she was most likely never to give up.   
  
Jayne was asleep, dreaming of odd things such as naked women, and credits beyond even the wild dream he was having now. Wash was enjoying the fruits of fatherhood, Zoe was throwing up in their bathroom, and Shepard Book was roaming the halls of the salvage ship trying to think of a way to visit Selma without being caught by Mal who was asleep in the mess hall slumped over the table.  
  
Kaylee was blanked out, something that happened when she saw something interesting to stare at, Inara was reliving the memories that made her so sad, and Simon was dreaming of Kaylee. That pretty much accounted for everyone, except Selma herself who was awake unlike her son Jordan who was sleeping peacefully in his room.  
  
Creeping down the hall, River stepped over Jayne's inert form, and pushed back the sliding door of the room. Miss Ennes sat there on the edge of her bed meditating, the blue eyes snapping open as the young girl cautiously entered the room.  
  
"You came to see me."  
  
"I could say the same about you." Replied River as she sat down on the floor across from the other woman. Selma smiled quietly, and adjusted her seat on the bed.  
  
"You came to me for answers to questions never asked."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"I came here to help you, to give you the tools you needed to make yourself whole again so that you could begin to understand the things that you learned at the Academy."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because it is my job."  
  
"You know more than you're saying." Selma smiled, and resituated herself. She could feel River pusing at the edges of her mind, but she hadn't been around for so long wihtout learning how to create a few defenses of her own. Taking a breath she opened her mouth to say something when Jayne pulled the door almost off the track revealing himself, Simon, and Mal. The doctor rushed for his sister to take her out of the room, but this time River wasn't going without a fight. The captain and the mercenary watched as the two siblings entered into a knock-down-drag-out tumble with River having the upper hand.  
  
"RIVER YOU'RE NOT SAFE HERE!" A low screech was the reply, punctuated by a swift kick to the ribs. Simon flew back against the wall, and crashed into the lamp knocking it over. Getting up he made for his sister once more when Selma stood, and both siblings dropped to the floor as if some invisible force had knocked them down.  
  
"Enough!" Selma closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. Something of this magnitude was too trying on her nerves, and it taxed her reserves. "Your sister came here to me in order to find answers, and so that I could help her. If you can't see that, then you really are an idiot."  
  
"You were hurting her!" Selma's eyes blazed.  
  
"If you know so much then how come your Captain is the only person on this ship who understands her better than her own brother? How come he can interpret the code she talks in, and you still think that she's babbling incoherently?" Simon opened his mouth to say something else when Mal stepped into the room.  
  
"What is she talkin' about?" Asked Jayne. Mal rubbed his eyes, and stared down at Simon who was still lying on the floor. He would have gotten up a long time ago, but it seemed as if his mind could rightly remember how to do that at the moment.  
  
"River can't talk like a normal person because whatever the Alliance did to her made it so that her words come out in this code nonsense. It doesn't keep her from writing things down clearly, see when she says 'purple elephants are flying' she's talking about Alliance personnel, and that ocean she keeps mentioning is her mind." Simon glanced over at River who was glaring at him from the far corner, Selma, and then Mal.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me this?"  
  
"I thought that you already knew, I mean come on Wash figured it out first, and I think everyone on this ship here knows how come she had information that no one told her about." Selma sat down hard on the bed, the movement somehow coinciding with Simon's recovered motor skills. Shakily he pulled himself to his feet, and stared hard at the archaeologist.  
  
"You said that you were helping her. How?"  
  
"She doesn't have a disease Simon, it's nothing you can treat with drugs." Tam opened his mouth, but Mal stopped him. His mind had already started down the right track when he pointed out River's unique talents to her brother just a few minutes ago, but now the rest of the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.  
  
"River, you said that Selma here is like you, but not briken right?" River nodded, her brow furrowing as she picked up on what the captain was getting at. "And you also said her ocean was calm, and deep, with life." Mal looked over at Selma.  
  
"You're a seer like River."  
  
"Give the man a prize." quipped the woman, before she passed out, and rolled onto the floor.  
  
"Guess she didn't see that coming." said Jayne idly.  
  
***  
  
"Is she dead?" Zoe stood in the doorway of the medbay staring at Ennes who was lying unconscious on the table. In the past five hours she had yet to regain consciousness, and her prolonged unresponsive behavior was starting to worry Simon.  
  
"Not as far as I can tell, but it does seem as if her mind has shut down. The only areas that appear to still be operating are the ones geared towards life support."  
  
"Is she sick?"  
  
"No, it doesn't look physical. This state she's in started right after Mal identified her as-as a seer."  
  
"She's like River?"  
  
"No...weaker...." Both turned to look at Selma who was slowly moving in an effort to pull at the IV in her arm. Simon immediately dashed to her side in order to stop her from removing the lines, and motioned for Zoe to get Mal. Ennes opened her blue eyes carefully, and stared inquisitively at the good doctor.  
  
"You're afraid of me now." Simon shook his head, but inside he knew that the woman was right. It did scare him the possibility that River was something capable of reading minds, it was disturbing, and-  
  
"That's the same way the Alliance thinks about people like me and your sister, its why when they find and capture us, we are treated as though we are less than human. Careful doctor, that empathy you show for your patients may be something more than you could ever understand." Paling slightly, Simon stepped back out of the way as Mal entered the room, and sat down on the counter to the right of the archaeologist. He had finished his first run a few hours ago, and now Serenity was on her way to Fairhead to unload her other cargo. Soon, all that would be left was Selma and her son.  
  
"I want answers," he said flatly. "And none of that mumbo-jumbo crap that you try to pass of as answers. I want to know everything." Selma smiled, and pulled herself into a sitting position.  
  
"Oh, if I were to tell you everything Mal, you would never sleep again. But, I can tell you the things that you need to know for the time being."  
  
"Fair enough, so long as it's the truth."  
  
"Most seers don't lie, we can never truly be sure of whether or not we are in the company of one of our own. What do you want to know?"  
  
"Why the Alliance is after River so badly."  
  
"That is a two-sided tale, but the main reason is because of what she is. Little do you know captain, but one out of every five people within the core worlds of the Alliance are born with River's abilities. That means that there are millions of people with PSI capabilities, but out of that multitude very few are actual telepaths. This means that the Alliance cannot control everyone, but strategically remove the ones that pose the greatest threat." Simon who had been listening, chose that moment to interject.  
  
"What you're saying is that nearly seventy-five percent of the Alliance population is empathic in some way."  
  
"It's higher out among the Independent worlds, out here one in every two people is born with the ability. It is another reason why the Alliance started the war in the first place, unification was a convienient cover story."  
  
"You're saying the war we fought wasn't for soverignty, but rather the right to exist as some sort of mistake by nature?"  
  
"Crude, but accurate. There was more going on that you know captain, there still it, but you aren't ready to know that part of the agenda yet. To put it mildly, there are fewer normal humans, than psis being born with each generation, and honestly-" Mal nodded. "Sterility is also occuring at higher rates within the normal populations, than in the ones possessing these gifts." Zoe let out a low whistle, Simon swallowed thickly, and Mal just shrugged.  
  
"Okay, say I believe this, what does this have to do with me exactly?"  
  
"I came here because when Simon freed his sister from the Academy, he cost my particular group-"  
  
"Wait group?"  
  
"As I said Captain, there is more going on here than you know, but I can tell you we are not the Alliance, and we certainly don't spend our time trying to hide information from one another. You should read the information on the Cortex more often, if you did you would see that there is a power shift taking place, and more information on Alliance misdeeds is making it's way to the press."  
  
"What kind of power shift?"  
  
"Again, need to know only. Anyway, Simon cost us an operative, one that would have been able to help River the moment she left the school be able to fuction relatively normally once they were outside, but the agents for the Alliance were quicker."  
  
"Who do they work for?" Selma just stared. "I see. Need to know."  
  
"As I was saying he would have been able to help River, but he was executed. I was sent to check on her condition, make sure that this environment was suitable, and warn you of any dangers to watch for from others."  
  
"What would have happened if this place wasn't good for her?" asked Zoe. Selma looked down at the floor.  
  
"An extraction team would have been sent to collect River and Simon, but as I said I don't see any reason for her to be removed." Mal nodded, and stepped away from the counter.  
  
"Seeing as how you're a seer and all, you know what I'm likely to do to you if you're lying to me."  
  
"In detail. I must warn you Mal, as I said one in every two people is born with a psi ability captain. Some of these people go one to become productive citizens, and other become monsters who feed off of the pain of their victims."  
  
"I don't need a seer to tell me that." said Mal.  
  
"Yes, you do because you have already met such an individual." Mal looked up from the floor, and stared hard at Selma who was lying back down on the bed again. Her blue eyes drooping as the blackness began to calime her once more.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I believe that River called him the vulture." she mumbled before finally passing out. Zoe creased her borw at the statement, and Simon just wondered, but Mal felt like the world had just dropped out from underneath him. Niska was one of these people? Shaking his head, the captain stalked out into the hall in order to check on the status of his cargo. They were only about a day away from Fairhead, but he didn't want to waste any time. 


	5. In The Desert There Is Always A Vulture

Fragile by Proxii Blue  
  
(Note: This story is actually turning out to be longer than I thought! I hope everyone likes it, and more reviews would be greatly appreciated :)  
  
X  
  
"You're up late." Mal didn't turn away from the viewscreen in Serenity's cockpit as Zoe wandered into the small space. The rest of the crew was basking in the glow of a job well done after having delivered their second run, now the only thing that was left to take care of was learning where Selma and her son wanted to be dropped off, but Zoe had known Mal long enough to realize that he was probably wondering whether or not just to dump them off on the nearest inhabitable rock.  
  
Then again Mal might not go through with that plan given everything he had learned in the past day or so, and that was most likely the reason why he was up late in the first place. The Shepard for once not the only person wandering Serenity's empty halls long after the rest of the crew had gone to sleep.  
  
"Shouldn't you be resting yourself?" Zoe shrugged, and came over to stand next to Mal in front of the window. She could see her reflection, just barely among the backdrop of stars, but staring out into space was not why she was there. In many ways she kept Mal sane, and vice versa. But if he did give into the stresses that plagued him, well Zoe wasn't quite sure what she would do, but she didn't dare entertain the thought.  
  
"I would but Wash wanted to rub my feet, then bury me with pillows, and I figured you wouldn't appreciate it much if I re-broke his arm."  
  
"Nope, would probably ruin my day."  
  
"More than it already has?" Mal didn't say anything, instead he just set his jaw into a hard line, and continued to stare out at the stars. There was so much knocking around in his skull right now, that it felt as if his mind were going to explode.  
  
"Zoe, I can always trust you, right?"  
  
"Of course sir, why do you ask?"  
  
"Because I need to tell you some things, disturbing things that for once I just can't keep to myself."  
  
"Does this involve River?"  
  
"That, and more." Mal sat down on the edge of the console that was usually manned by Wash and filled Zoe in on everything from River's tale about PSIOPS, to how it fit in with everything Selma had told them earlier that day. He finished it off with his suspicions about Niska, and noticed that Zoe was staring at him hard.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You left something out." The disc. Mal had told her about everything except for the disc, but at the moment he didn't feel that it was of any importantce.  
  
"I did, River bought a toy at the market."  
  
"It's important."  
  
"No it's not." Zoe didn't press the issue. If Mal wanted to disregard it for the time being, that was his perogative, but she could tell that it was bothering some part of him, just not one large enough to weigh on the rest of his mind yet.  
  
"Well what do you think sir?"  
  
"I think that we stepped into a pile of it when we took River and Simon on, but if what Selma said in there is true about people, especially out here, then it's a damn good reason for us to keep them out of Alliance hands."  
  
"You're not bothered by what she told you?"  
  
"Hell yeah I am bothered by what she told me! Do you know what that means? All those readers running around, not to mention not knowing which one is a seer? I hate to play the Devil's advocate here, but I can see why the Alliance feels scared."  
  
"Scared enough to do what they did to River to innocent children. Does that seem right to you Mal?"  
  
"No, it is not right, and that is not what I'm saying. It's just that-"  
  
"You're afraid that she might be right about Niska?" Mal sat down hard in the pilot's chair. Zoe had hit the nail on the head so to speak. He was afraid that Selma was right, he was afraid of everything that he might be in the middle of, and also he was afraid that he might not be able to handle it once things started to get out of hand. Then again he had handled everything until now.  
  
River was a mind-reading genius who was part of a small population who had her specific gift. the majority of the human race was turning empathic, and controlling these special types was only a small part of whatever agenda the Alliance was trying to fulfill. Subconsciously, a little voice told Mal that it was part of that damn gold disc somehow, but consciously he refused to acknowledge it.  
  
However, if he looked at it his mind was no more complicated then it had been a day ago. Yet he was curious about this whole underground faction thing that Selma claimed that she was a part of. Searches on the Cortex revealed nothing except her certifications as an archaeologist, but there was nothing else there that could be used to completely identify her.   
  
The records said that she had been born on Keelwaters, her approximate age was thirty-seven, she had one son, was widowed, and listed as a neutral with neither Alliance or Independent ties. In other words, she was a free agent, but that still didn't explain her ability to keep from being caught by the Alliance all this time.  
  
It wasn't likely that she was working for them, if that was true she wouldn't have been able to get within two feet of River. Her ties to the underground group was the only logical explanation, but answers were not forthcoming since according to Simon her mind was experiencing electrical disturbances, almost as if something was actively interfereing with her ability to function on a conscious level.  
  
There was not way of knowing whether or not River was behind it, but Mal suspected that she wasn't, and if that were true who was? Mal looked up at Zoe who was now staring out of the viewscreen, and pulled himself to his feet.  
  
"Zoe, could you do something for me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"See if you could get Simon to help you put River up in a different room for the night."  
  
"May I ask why?"  
  
"It might be nothing, but I just prefer that she be kept somewhere safer than her room."  
  
"Allright." Zoe left to take care of what her captain wanted, while Mal made his way to his own quarters in order to try and get some sleep. Ever since they had started on this run something had been interfering with his ability to actually pass out into blissfull blackness. and tonight he intended to break the cycle, and actually get some shut-eye.  
  
Walking down the short steps into his quarters, Mal pulled off his shirt, pants, and climbed under the sheets in his boxer shorts. There was someone in the bed next to him, someone that squeaked when he rolled on them in the darkness.  
  
"Son of a Bitch!" hopping out of bed, Mal turned on the lights full-strength revealing a confused River sitting pressed into the corner that formed the juncture between the wall and his bed.  
  
"River what the hell are you doing in here?"  
  
"Staying safe."  
  
"Why not stay safe with your brother?"  
  
"He can't protect me from the vulture, he couldn't when the viper came."  
  
"I'm guessing you're talking about Jubal Early?" River nodded. Mal looked down at the floor, and thought for a few minutes. Throwing River out might cause more problems than it was worth, but Mal also didn't like the idea of staying in the same bed with him. He suspected that something in Jayne's mind had set her off during the whole knife incident, and given his range of nightmares he was worried that he might wake up with the girl's hands firmly wrapped around his neck. At any rate he was damned no matter what he did.  
  
"I'm stronger now, I won't hurt you." Mal looked over at River. There was a clarity in her eyes, which meant that for the time being she had gained control over the ability that her mind had harnessed. The archaeologist had claimed that she had helped her, but River was still acting strange. Not unless...Well with River you could never tell.  
  
"Well thank you for the consideration, but I much rather prefer that you sleep in your own bed."  
  
"I feel safer with you."  
  
"That so?"  
  
"That's so." Mal sighed, and reached around in his drawer until he found a shirt. Walking back over to the bed, he climbed in leaving a blanket between them, and turned out the light.  
  
"Now don't be a wiggle worm, get it all out of your system now, or I'll turn you out." River scooted around until she found the sweet spot, and spooned up against Mal's backside. Letting out another sigh, Mal closed his eyes, and prayed silently to whoever was listening that none of the other crew came in during the night.  
  
It just wouldn't do to have to go through life knowing he got his butt whipped by Simon Tam for sleeping (innocently) with his little sister.  
  
River just giggled.  
  
***  
  
Selma Ennes lay semi-conscious on the table in medbay under Simon's watchful eye. She could feel him watching her, and sense the turmoil in his mond as he turned over everything that she had told him. She hadn't lied to him, the truth was what it was, but there were just some people in the 'verse who couldn't handle what was right in front of them.  
  
If she were better she would talk to Book, or try to calm down the young doctor, but her energy was slowly draining. When she had used her abilities to interfere with River and Simon's fight she had let down her defenses to far, and as a result had picked up on every emotion of the crew as well as the insanity of the man that River called the vulture. She knew what he was, a seer like her, but the 'verse, and his own sick mind had turned him into a monster that fed off of the pain and suffering of his victims.   
  
There were some sensitives wou were just naturally predisposed to becoming social deviants, and the man - Niska - was one of them. They were evil incarnate, something that was most likely the result of mutations on their thirteenth chromosomes, that led to an occurnence of mental disorders that ranged from simple depression to becoming a full-fledged psychopath.  
  
Personally, Selma didn't know how why the man was after the crew so badly, but she did know that just picking up on him was enough to cause her to shut down. Now her only hope was to remain calm, and conserve energy for the fight that was about to come. However, if she was unable to repair her defenses in time, she would slip into a coma as her mind did the work the hard way, and there would be now way for her to protect both River and her son Jordan.  
  
He too was like his mother, but young, and too inexperienced to be of much help. If anything the vulture would get him first. Taking a few deep breaths, Selma refocused her attention, and tried to concentrate on something else that would aid with what she was trying to do. There was so little time left, hours at most, and that wasn't long enough.  
  
She hoped that River and her son would be okay, she needed them to be. Ennes couldn't afford to lose someone else.  
  
XI  
  
"Come on baby. Come on." Kay Winnit Lee Frye, better known as Kaylee sat in the hallway outside of the cockpit trying to recalibrate the artificial gracity filters after Simon had already tinkered with them. He hadn't done too badly, only set them off to the point that if one stepped hard enough, they could propel themselves into the ceiling. While that had been funny when it happened to Jayne, Zoe had a different opinion, and now with her pregnant Wash had been almost hysterical.  
  
Now, she had to fix what Simon had already messed with, and as a result it was taking her longer than it would have if he had just left well-enough alone. Sometimes the man could be so gorram infuriating, but she knew why he had done it - as a way to make nice with her.  
  
"But if he wanted to do that," she muttered. "He could have just bought me a new calibrator so I wouldn't have to use this old one."  
  
"Sometimes when we care about someone, we try to make them happy by helping them with something that is close to their heart." Kaylee jumped, and let out a small shriek. Jordan Ennes stood half-in, half-out of the shadows watching the ship's engineer with a small smile on his face. He had his mother's eyes, but his father's dark hair. From what she had seen of him when he joined the crew in mess, he was a thin young man with pale skin, and an aptitude for silence.  
  
Something that was rather out of character for him since he seemed to be so friendly, yet reserved. Maybe because it was his father had died.  
  
"I just keep to myself." he said softly. Kaylee frowned, and then remembered what she had overhead Zoe and Mal taking about when they had been in the cockpit. Jordan looked down at the floor as Kaylee's thoughts reached out to him from her spot in the hallway.  
  
"I think I should go."  
  
"No, it's okay, I have some readers in my family. I just never met a-"  
  
"Seer?"  
  
"I guess so. I mean I don't mean to be rude or nothing, I'm just not used to being around someone who can read my mind, and know what I'm going to say before I can say it." Jordan smiled, and came over to where Kaylee was. Sitting down, he watched as she tried to recalibrate the air filters.  
  
"It's allright, I'm not used to being around someone who doesn't really mind that I can read their mind." Kaylee smiled, and put the filter back in the compartment in the hall floor. Securing it in place, she tapped a few keys on her diagnostic console, and whooped softly as the filter came online.  
  
"Good as new."  
  
"Shiny." Kaylee put her tools away, and leaned back against the cool surface of the wall behind her. She was tired to be sure, but after her run-in with Jubal Early she wasn't capable of sleeping really at night, and working seemed to take her mind off of what had happened.  
  
"He scared you really badly didn't he?"  
  
"Yeah, he was a bad man."  
  
"Many people who are like that don't know right from wrong. It wasn't right that he used your fears against you." Kaylee looked at her hands in the dim light from the grates in the ceiling.  
  
"Doesn't it ever get hard for you sometimes, knowing what everyone is thinking, and knowing what a person is really like."  
  
"You mean do I ever wonder what it is like to be like everyone else?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Yeah, sometimes. Then again it really pays off when I play poker." Kaylee let out a short bark of a laugh, and ran her fingers through her red hair.  
  
"You remind me of my cousin Mary Joe who-" both youths looked up as a loud clank sounded from the rear of the ship. It was too early yet for Book to be up, and too late for Jayne. Kaylee knew every sound there was to be heard on the ship, and that wasn't one that she was familiar with.  
  
"Is someone there?" she called into the darkness. Jordan rubbed his temples, and stared over at the darkness down at the end of the corridor at something that Kaylee couldn't see.  
  
"Yes, I can see them, but-" Jordan was cut off as a short 'puff' cut through the silence, and his shirt rippled into a mess of blood. Falling backwards, the boy lay on his side as blood gushed from his shoulder. Rusing over to his side, Kaylee held pressure on the wound as a figure stepped out of the darkness with two other shadows behind them. Kaylee's eyes widened as Niska stood over her grinning with a still-smoking gun in his left hand. The tip of it equipped with a silencer.  
  
"Why hello Miss. Frye, I do believe that you and your gentleman friend will kindly oblige me by retiring for the evening." Kaylee didn't even get a chance to scream as Niska fired a round into her chest.  
  
***  
  
Simon Tam sat in the small medbay of Serenity reading Selma's book of poetry. It had been a long time since he had been able to enjoy some of the works of Ray Bradbury, and the small red volume was proving to be a welcome treat for the doctor's tired mind. He had just turned the page to another sonnet, when he noticed that there was someone standing in front of him.  
  
"Mal can I-" Niska smiled as Simon dropped the book, and hastily backed away from the older man. The gun was level with the doctor's throat, the trigger almost back to the hilt as he motioned for the younger of the two to walk over to the cabinet where Tam kept his drugs.  
  
"Take out the hiprovaline." That particular drug was a powerful sedative. Simon did as he was told, Niska pointed to a pack of syiringes on the table. Shaking heavily, the doctor withdrew one, almost dropping it in the process.  
  
"Calm down doctor, I am not going to kill you, I just want you to give the good patient here a reaso to stay quiet for a little while." Nervously Simon approached Ennes, and slid the tip of the needle into her arm. The plunger depressed, and for the next six to eight hours Selma was going to be in a nice drug-induced coma. Niska smiled, and twitched the gun indicating that he wanted Simon to drop the used instrument. To doctor did so, only to have the deranged murderer point to the drug again.  
  
"Fill another syringe." Tam did as he was told. "Now give it to me." Carefully Simon handed it over to Niska. One of his men stepped into the doorway, whereupon he was given the needle containing the drug.  
  
"Put our good doctor to sleep for me."  
  
"Wait!" Simon moved fast, but not fast enough. The tiny sliver of metal stabbed through the back of his neck, and his world went black as the chemicals took effect. Tam hit the floor with a heavy thud, Niska shaking his head as he stared at the youth.  
  
"Idiot." he muttered, before searching through the rest of the ship.  
  
***  
  
"I'm hungry." Wash looked up from his spot on the floor as Zoe got up, and put on a black robe. Normally he would have gotten up to get whatever she needed, but the two had been having a little 'fun' earlier in the evening, and as a result Wash was too tired to even speak.   
  
"Mmk." Was all he said as she climbed the short stairs that led out of their quarters, and into the ahllway. No sooner had the door closed behind her when Zoe sensed that there was something off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she could tell that something was tainting the atmosphere of Serenity as she started heading for the mess.   
  
With each step her sense of foreboding grew until she decided that she wasn't going to take any chances, not until she went back to her quarters first, and got a gun. Turning around she was stopped bu the barrel of a gun pressed against her throat. Niska grinned at her from the shadows, as he backed her towards the door to the room she shared with her husband.  
  
"So nice to see you again Zoe."  
  
"Can't say the same for you Niska."  
  
"Ah, I can't blame you I did try to kill your captain and husband."  
  
"I'm guessing that's why you're here? To finish the job?"  
  
"In a matter of speaking, except this time there isn't going to be anyone to get in my way." The hammer of the gun cocked backwards.  
  
"W-wait. You don't want to do that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I don't care what argument you have with Mal, but I - I'm pregnant. I'm no threat to you." Wash who had heard the thumping as Zoe was backed down the hallway, had been carefully opening the door to their room.  
  
"Pregnant? Ah a little one of your own hmm?" Zoe nodded. Niska smiled, and backed up just enough to kick the woman in her stomach hard enough to send her flying backwards down the stairs of her own quarters. Wash let out a startled shriek as he tried to catch Zoe, the door sliding shut, and clicking as the lock was set.  
  
"ZOE!"  
  
***  
  
Inara sat with Book in her shuttle playing cards. The Shepard was quite good at the game, even though he claimed that he had never played before. Jayne was consistently losing, and after the fifth game he quit. Now the mercenary sat on the sidelines watching with a sour look on his face, and his arms folded.  
  
"You sure that you don't want to try again?" asked the Companion. Jayne just huffed loudly. Book laid his hand on the table showing three kings, and a three.  
  
"Three rings." Inara smiled, and put down her cards. Four queens.  
  
"I do believe that this round once again goes to the ladies." Book stretched, and looked at the time on the small clock on Inara's dresser.  
  
"I think that I'm going to get some sleep." With that the Shepard got up from where he was sitting, and headed for the door when he stopped to listen to something.  
  
"Hear something preacher?"  
  
"Yes, there is some sort of device on the other side of this door that's beeping." Inara frowned and rose from her seat. She joined the Shepard where he was standing, and craned her neck.  
  
"You're right, but what do you think it is?"  
  
"Well," Shepard cracked the shuttle door a little by tapping the button, and used a small mirror to see around the corner. "Oh my God!"  
  
"What?" asked Jayne and Inara in unison. Book shut the door, and turned around to look at the other two occupants of the shuttle.  
  
"There is a bomb on the door."  
  
"A what?" asked Jayne.  
  
"A bomb on the door, from the looks of it it's tied in with the mechanism that activates the release."  
  
"How do you know it's a bomb, you're just a preacher?" Book stared at Jayne with a look in his eyes that Inara had never seen before.  
  
"If you want to take up the argument with that 10-17-A concussion grenade out there, be my guest, but the shockwave isn't powerful enough to destroy the shuttle. I figure that if Inara and I take refuge in the cockpit, at most we'll be splattered with your entrails as they are blasted through the door." Jayne looked back at the shuttle entrance, and then at Inara and Book.  
  
"10-17-A concussion grenade's can be deactivated by pulling the pin on their power sleeve." said Jayne.  
  
"True, except to get to the power sleeve, we have to be on the other side of the door." Jayne looked over his shoulder again.  
  
"Aw shit."  
  
***  
  
Mal rolled over in his bed contentedly, it was unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night for a few minutes, but as he turned over something told him to open his eyes. Normally he would have ignored this urge, yet some part of him picked up on the urgency of the movement, and slowly he cracked open his lids just enough to see someone holding a forty-five.  
  
"What that-?" Instantly awake Mal sat up to see River standing next to the bed with her head titled on an angle towards the door, her hand forming a death-grip on the handle of the weapon.  
  
"River, what the hell are you doing?" The girl looked down at the gun, and then back over at the door again.  
  
"The vulture is here, he's already plucked the warm carcasses of the guards at our door." Mal pulled the gun out of her hands, and stared over at the entrance to his quarters. Thinking about the correlations between River's code, and the things that had been happening on the ship he knew that he couldn't just ignore what she was saying. Walking over to the table in the corner he picked up the writing pad, and handed it to River.  
  
"Tell me what is going on." River hastily wrote something down on the flexi, and handed it back to Mal. As she did so the captain caught a glimpse of her eyes and saw total fear in them. Whatever was on that silicone slip, he knew it wasn't good. Turning it over he read her message:  
  
"Niska is here, he's already killed some of the crew, and now he's coming for you." Mal dropped the flexi, and turned towards the door when he heard someone scratching about on the other side. Both froze in the room as the heavy slab of metal began to lift upwards, and someone began to enter the room. 


	6. From Darkness Comes Light

Fragile By Proxii Bleu  
  
XI  
  
"Hold it right there!" said Mal as he pointed the .45 at the figure standing in the darkness of the hallway. The lamp in his room wasn't much for light so the place was bordered with shadows and odd tricks of the eye. The person in the corridor swayed slightly, and then pitched forward suddenly into the room. It happened faster than Mal could fire, but as they rolled down the stairs to where he stood he was glad that he didn't.  
  
Kaylee gasped like a fish out of water, her chest stained with red as she reached up for Mal. Long fingers dried with shades of crimson and brown held onto his leg as she tried to heft herself up from the floor, but there wasn't enough strength left in her body. Rivulets ran down the corners of her mouth, and after being in combat Mal knew that he was looking at a woman who was dead, but too gorram stubborn to give in to reality.  
  
"Captain..." her voice was a dry wheeze, River knelt beside her friend and peered into her eyes. The small girl's hands tightening as she peered into Kaylee's eyes, Mal watched the scene unfold before him, but was unprepared for the unholy shriek that erupted from River's throat. In her mind she saw Niska gun down Kaylee and Jordan who was still alive outside of the cockpit, but wouldn't be for much longer.  
  
She could see her brother lying in the drug-induced slumber on the floor, and feel Wash's anguish as he held Zoe in his arms crying and praying that she and their little one not yet born would be all right. All if this in the blink of an eye, all of the emotions, the pain, and terror that emenated from everyone including the three in the shuttle. River let out another shriek, and then stood. Her face blank as she stared at the door.  
  
Mal pushed around her, and picked Kaylee up off of the floor. Carefully he laid her on the bed, and wrapped her in the blankets.  
  
"Kaylee can you hear me?" The engineer's eyes were starting to glaze over, but they immediately focused when she heard the captain's voice. She had no strength to speak, only writhe as the pain laced through her chest.  
  
"Kaylee I want you to try and hang on okay? I'm going to go get Simon, and I'm going to get rid of Niska. You think you can hold on till then?" Kaylee somehow managed to shake her head. Mal pushed a few strands of red hair out of her face, and grimaced when he realized that it was darker than usual due to the amount of blood in it.  
  
"No, you don't give up okay? You just hang tight, and I'll be right back. Now you just concentrate on staying alive." Mal got up from next to the bed, and turned to see River picking up another one of his guns. He moved to stop her, but paused when he saw her assemble the weapon, load it, and cock it as if she had been doing it all of her life.  
  
"River give me that." The youngest of the Tam siblings easily sidestepped Mal, and ran up the stairs into the hall.  
  
"River get back here."  
  
"She understands, she comprehends, but he doesn't." Mal just gaped at her. River let out a hard sigh. "I will lead you through the darkness into the light, the vulture does not like the light, but you seek it. You must keep the vulture in the darkness until I can lead you to the light."  
  
"You mean safety?" River chewed on the edge of her lip.  
  
"You are like Simon."  
  
"In what way?" asked Mal as he came to stand next to her in the dark corridor. River smiled, and shook her head.  
  
"You are both idiots."  
  
***  
  
"You think Niska is going to kill him slow or fast?" One of the larger and uglier of the two thugs who were accopanying Niska, looked over at his companion as they stood guard outside of the medbay door. Inside Simon was still unconscious on the floor, but he hadn't recieved as large a dose of hyprovaline as Selma. As a result it was likely that he was going to come to at any minute. Now while Niska had said that he personally wasn't going to kill the boy, he hadn't said anything about his men.  
  
"I think Niska is going to kill him slow," said the other. "Make him scream for about three weeks before he puts him out." The other laughed drily, and looked in on Simon.  
  
"You think we should blow his head off while he's out?"  
  
"Naw, let him get up first. I like seeing the look on their faces when they get that first hole blowed in them."  
  
"You gonna do the kneecaps first?"  
  
"Hands, you do the kneecaps, I told you I'd let ya get the next one."  
  
"Shiny." In the medbay Simon lay on the floor staring at the reflection of the overhead lights in the linoleum. He could hear the two mercenaries talking, and decided to concentrate hard on looking like he was unconscious. Earlier they had used him for a punching bag. Kicking him in his ribs, stoping on various parts of his body, and generally abusing him to the point where he had been unable to stop moaning. Fortunately for him that didn't count to the two thugs as being awake, just 'softening up'.  
  
Closing his eyes again lest the pain started getting worse, and he once more cried out Simon tried to think of something other than the two angels of death outside his door. Normally, he didn't care much for the man, but right now Simon really wished that Jayne was there.  
  
"He look awake to you?" Simon mentally cursed, and went limp. The other man peered in at him.  
  
"Wiggly, but not awake. Probably from being all busted up from that beatin' we gave him."   
  
"Want to beat him some more?"  
  
"Sure." The uglier thug made to walk in the medbay when he heard a noice off to his left. Turning around he flicked on the small flashlight he carried with him, and tried to see whatever it was that had caused the disturbance. In the corridor a small mouse ran through the light of his beam, and disappeared. His companion snickered.  
  
"What's wrong? Scared of a little mouse."  
  
"Shaddap." The thugs glared at each other for a few seconds before another noise, this time louder startled the both of them.  
  
"Niska, that you?"  
  
"No." A flash of yellow fire exloded in the darkness, the bang coinciding with the uglier of the two men's knees erupting into a blaze of red. Screaming he went down to the floor, his gun skittering off into the gloom, while his friend fired madly down into the corridor. There was no-one there.  
  
"Oh God! I'm dead." The other merc turned his gun on his partner, and shot him through the side of his head. The last thing he needed was some idiot screaming his head off when he was trying to listen.  
  
"Now you're dead." Walking into the medbay he kicked at Simon until his eyes flew open. Above him the infidel who had broken his ankle by stomping on him glared down at him from behind his gun.  
  
"Get up."  
  
"I can't," Wheezed Simon. "My ankle's broken." The merc kicked him square in the jaw.  
  
"I said get up!" Slowly, Simon got onto all fours, and made an effort to try and stand. He was in more pain than when he had been shot, and he could feel the ends of the bones grinding together as he tried to obey the merc. Looking up, he tried to think of a way to bargain with the man when he let out a sharp cry, and grabbed at the back of his neck. Falling forward, Simon managed to dive out of the way as the large man crashed to the floor. Sticking up in the air was a large syringe, a bottle of hyprovaline rolling about on the floor as it slipped out of River's hands.  
  
"Oh my God, River." Simon tried to get up to reach her, but all he could do was slump uselessly against the cabinets behind him. His sister just stared at him silently, before turning to peer out into the gloom.  
  
"The vulture sends more wolves this way, but they will not enter." River stepped out into the gloom, and then reappeared dragging someone. The breath rushed out of Simon's lungs as Kaylee was dumped into the medbay. While Mal had gone off in search of Niska, River had doubled-back, and retrieved Kaylee from his room. The engineer was barely alive, her pulse beyond faint, and her breathing raspy as her lungs tried to draw in precious air. Crawling across the floor, Simon quickly evaluated her.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"The vulture shot her." Simon looked up at Selma who was merely sleeping on the bed, and with a strength he didn't know he had the doctor moved her to the floor. Scooping up Kaylee he laid her on the bed, and hastily began looking around for supplies.   
  
"River, hand me that-" River was gone, the door to the medbay shutting behind her. "RIVER!"  
  
"You're safer in there Simon, the vulture can't come in with his wolves."  
  
"RIVER COME BACK!"  
  
"I will when the vulture is gone." Simon watched her go for a second, and then turned back to Kaylee. Her life was in his hands.  
  
***  
  
"What happened?" Niska stared hard at his henchman who had come running to him with news of what had happened to his other goons. It had been three months of hard planning for the day when he caught up the Malcolm Reynolds, and he had no intention of having anything or anyone spoil his plans.  
  
"Joe went apeshit and blew Hal's head off, and now he's locked in the medbay with the doctor."  
  
"What is the doctor doing now?"  
  
"Cuttin' up that girl you pumped a shell in earlier." Niska pursed his lips, and looked up at the ceiling. The good doctor had been beat within the inch of his life the last he'd seen him, which meant that someone had to have distracted Hal and Joe long enough to allow whatever-his-name-was to get the upper hand.  
  
"Is all of the crew accounted for?"  
  
"Yes, guests included." Niska looked down at the floor as he paced. No, that didn't make sense. The guests were accounted for, he knew that Mal was just one deck above him continuing his search, and- Niska paused as he picked up on another player in the game. He thought back to Simon's reaction earlier when Joe had drugged him, he had been trying to escape the merc in order to get to something. A girlfriend? No, she was lying under his knife. A relative, perhaps a sibling? Ah yes, a sister, but where was she. Niska frowned. Never in his life had he been unable to tell where someone was, he always knew, understood how their mind worked, and figure out how to counteract their next move. He could tell that River was somewhere, but just as soon as he had detected her she was gone.  
  
The old man smiled to himself as he turned over the new little piece of data in his mind. This could prove to be a very challenging little interruption to his plan, one that would be hard to remove, but not impossible to dispose of.  
  
"Keep an eye out for anyone that isn't confined. Shoot them on sight, but leave Captain. Reynolds alone. I want to deal with him personally." The man left Niska alone in the cargo bay, the older man muttering to himself as he made plans for destruction.  
  
XII  
  
"We're going to die in here." Book looked over at Inara who was lying on her bed with a dark look on her face. It wasn't often that the Companion was morose, but there was something in her eyes that showed a level of sadness that he hadn't seen in her before.  
  
"I don't see how, the bomb is on the outside of the door, we're in here. At most I don't think whoever installed it is likely to come looking to see if we've set it off." Inara toyed with the edge of the cover on her bed. How many times had she slept in it with someone else? Serviced lonely men who wanted her only for one thing, just like he had when she was young? Inara closed her eyes to the sea of bad memories, and rolled onto her side.  
  
"In the end Shepard, we all die. Even when we are alive we die small deaths until there is nothing left but a shell, and as that shell ages it welcomes an end to emptiness it has always felt."  
  
"You're startin' to sound like the doctor's ruttin's sister." said Jayne who was still trying to figure a way to get at the bomb to deactivate it. He couldn't open the door no more than a quarter-inch crack, and that didn't give him much room to work with.  
  
"If you ever listen to her Jayne like Wash, Mal, and Kaylee have you'll see that her words make sense."  
  
"So what? You really are all sad inside?" Inara smirked.  
  
"We are all sad Jayne, I'd like to be alone now." With that the Companion rose from her seat on her bed, and wandered into the cockpit where she shut herself in. Book stared at her retreating form, but knew that speaking to her was not likely to be productive. He had his suspicions about her, but until something happend to confirm them there was no reason to say anything.  
  
"Women on this ship get stranger by the day. Zoe's knocked up, River's got Mal figurin' out her nonsense, Inara's all messed up in her head, Little Kaylee's got her panties in a bunch over that ruttin doctor, and Wash got all these ideas about manhood." Book raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Wash isn't a woman Jayne." The mercenary looked over his shoulder at the Shepard.  
  
"Preacher, I hate to break it to ya, but there's only one person wearin' pants in that mess, and it ain't Wash."  
  
"Just because Zoe is a strong, dominant woman doesn't mean Wash is feminine. It just means that-"   
  
"What?" Book was saved from having to try and supply an answer by the door to the shuttle sliding open. Outside stood River with the deactivated bomb in one hand, and Jayne's gun Vera in the other. The two men looked at one another for a second, and then at the girl.  
  
"The vulture smells my blood, but he cannot smell yours. It is not what he wants. I need you to kill the vulture." Jayne looked as River dropped Vera at his feet.  
  
"River?" The girl looked over at Book, and narrowed her eyes. Some instinct told the Shepard that she was lucid, but currently she was acting like her abnormal self.  
  
"You need to stop being a Shepard, you need to be a hunter. Those hollow words will not help you in the darkness, but they may help the women in the hole." Book shook his head at Jayne who was looking at him for an explanation.  
  
"River, I don't know what you mean." The girl just glared at him before walking into the room, and searching for something. She picked up a charred incense stick, and scribbled a message on the wall: Wash and Zoe. Book looked at the girl, and then at the second gun lying on the floor.  
  
She knew.  
  
Cautiously he walked over and picked it up. The stony glare disappeared, replaced by a large smile. Jayne headed out into the gloom, leaving Book with River who was already heading back out into the corridor.  
  
"River?" she turned to look at him, her brown eyes dancing as she took in the Shepard.  
  
"I know," she said softly. "But you have light in you, like the light in your words. Not darkness like the blue hands, not emptiness, or hate. You are a Shepard Book, it means more about you than your other name could ever say." With that she disappeared, leaving the older man standing there wondering about what she had said.  
  
Jayne was right. That girl was just ruttin crazy sometimes.  
  
***  
  
Jordan was only vaguely aware of someone dragging him. Their steps were even, unhurried, and strong as they towed him down the hall to somewhere. He had no sense of time anymore, no ability to discern pain from numbness as he was dumped into a white room, and left there comforted only by the hiss of the door closing. He could hear the steady beep of some instrument, and the worried voice of someone who was picking him up off of the floor. For some reason he had a feeling that everything would be all right.  
  
***  
  
"Zoe?" Wash sat on the bed next to his wife who was lying curled up on her side trying to think of something other than the pain that she was feeling. The good news was that Niska's kick had been high, hitting her in the ribs instead of her stomach, but she knew that if any of her injuries worsened she was at risk for losing her baby.  
  
"What honey?"  
  
"Are you bleeding or anything?"  
  
"No, nothing going on down there that shouldn't be."  
  
"Okay." Silence stretched between them. From time to time Wash would look over at the door to their room, at the gun on the floor, and back again. Zoe knew what he was thinking about, but Wash was a pilot not a soldier. He wouldn't last five minutes against one of Niska's men, but she didn't tell him so. It would only cause her husband to want to go out and prove her wrong, and then she would be a widow.   
  
"I'm a little thirsty."  
  
"Huh? Oh." Wash went into the bathroom, and then returned with a little glass of water. Carefully he helped Zoe sit up and take a few sips before helping her lie bck down on the bed.  
  
"What do you think is going on out there?"  
  
"I don't know it's quiet."  
  
"You think Mal got him?"  
  
"If Mal had gotten him, then he would have let us know by now." The couple's heads snapped around as the door to their room opened, and Book walked down the stairs.  
  
"Shepard?" Book looked over at Zoe who was curled up on the bed.  
  
"River let Jayne and myself out of the shuttle after someone had locked us in with a 10-17-A concussion grenade. I haven't seen the rest of the crew, but from what I could gather they're pretty much safe. What about you?"  
  
"Niska kicked me in the ribs, but he missed the baby. I can't breathe hardly." Book shut the door again, and walked over to the bed. Carefully with Wash's help he uncurled her, and poked at the bruised area carefully.  
  
"Yep, they're broken. We need to get you to the medbay."  
  
"You need to stay where you are." All three looked up at the ceiling where River was peering at them through a grate covering part of the air circulation system. "The vulture is hunting, he will strike you down if he sees you. It safer in the hole, the Shepard will protect you."  
  
"River you need to go hide." said Zoe weakly. The girl shook her head adamantly.  
  
"Mal needs me to lead him into the light, or the darkness with consume him." With that she disappeared leaving Zoe, Wash, and Book standing alone in the dark bedroom.  
  
"Wash, do you know what she said?" The pilot looked at the other two and just shrugged.  
  
"Not really, but if you'd like my guess I'd say Niska is humped."  
  
XIII  
  
"PSIOPS, Niska, telepaths, and Zoe's pregnant all in a week." Mal slipped along the darkened corridors of Serenity looking for Niska. Already he had taken out three of the older man's goons, but one could never be sure that there wasn't another hiding somewhere like a hog in a hole. Reynolds knew that his nemesis was taunting him, playing one of his sick litle games before he either pumped a bullet into the back of Mal's head, or spent the next few weeks torturning him until death would be a welcome release.  
  
Either option wasn't acceptable. Mal needed to live for his crew, for the sheer pleasure of being satsified with each rub he gave the Alliance, and strangely enough for Inara. He didn't know why he was even thinking about the Companion, after all if one looked at it she was nothing more than a high-priced whore, but when he took in everything that he had heard about her from River, and the fact that there were times when the younger woman would just seemingly shut down he knew that there was more behind her choice of profession than what she was saying.  
  
Of course there were other possibilities, but Mal hadn't met a Companion yet that had become one out of sheer enchantment with the job. Many came from broken homes, the streets, or in some cases from families that looked good on the outside but were just downright ugly on the in.  
  
For some reason Mal was inclined to believe that it might be something akin to the latter, but unless Inara said something he would never have any real way of knowing. Well, he did, but River was prone to speaking in riddles, and most of the time seemed content to roam around the ship in a daze.  
  
Simon called it 'adjusting', Mal called it 'spacing out'. However, River was unusually lucid for once. Since Jubal Early and Selma Ennes there had been a shift in her personality, one that was significat enough to make Mal wonder whether or not she was better, and just playing the part of the abnormal sister.  
  
At any rate, he knew for a fact that there was damage to whatever part of her brain allowed her to speak. Just watching her he could see the frustration and confusion on her face as her words were mixed up, and transformed into a strange jumble that had to be interpreted before it could be understood. After talking with Ennes, Simon had suggested that when they cut into her brain they had damaged her frontal lobe, but without a scanner he had now way of knowing for sure. He hadn't bothered to check for that when they were on Ariel. Either way she wasn't as frail as she used to be, there was a strength to her now, and Mal wondered just how much stronger she was going to get as the darkness fell from her.  
  
A noise sounded from his left, causing Mal to turn sharply, and peer down into the gloom. He didn't see anything, but instinct told him that there was something there.  
  
"Who's there?"  
  
"Nobody." Mal let out a sigh as River stepped out of the gloom. Her eyes peering into the captain's as she dropped something at his feet. It was a jumbled maze of wires, boards, and relays.  
  
"River what did you do?"  
  
"They are here, the hunters are here, but the vulture will strike them down before they can ever touch me."  
  
"Huh? Wait, what did you do?"  
  
"I broke their ship, I made them come to me, and now the vulture will go to them." Mal opened his mouth to say something else when he heard a commotion coming from the cargo bay. Motioning for River to be quiet, Mal slunk through the corridors, until he came to the catwalk. Standing back in the corner where he couldn't be easily seen, Reynolds peered down over the edge into the wide expanse. Three men stood talking amongst themselves heatedly, their words drifting up to where the two stowaways were hiding.  
  
"Whoever sabotaged us knew what they were doing, our navigation controls are gone, and we have lost our aniti-gravity generators."  
  
"Could it have been one of the crew of this...vessel?" The third man in the black suit appeared to be in charge, his features almost emotionless as he spoke.  
  
"No, it appears they have been neutralized. This level of damage could only have been done by someone who was familiar with our systems, our recon has 761A-367 on this ship with her brother."  
  
"Ensure that the crew is neutralized, I don't want the same nonsense as on Ariel. When you're done retrieve 761A-367 and her brother...alive." Mal turned to go when River pulled from him and walked calmly to the edge of the catwalk. Yelling silently he tried to catch her, but his fingers only snagged on the hem of her dress.  
  
"I am not a number." she said loudly. All three of the men looked up at River, the two lackeys were shocked, while the man in the black suit just smiled at her.  
  
"761A-367, or should I say River Tam? Are you ready to end this foolishness and come back to where you belong? If you do, I promise that no one will be harmed." River shook her head.  
  
"You're lying I can see that. The ocean is calmer now that you no longer control the waters. I am starting to see the forest from the trees, and I prefer to stay here where I can see what you are afraid to look upon." The man walked closer to the catwalk, his head titled on an odd angle as he looked back into the shadows.  
  
"Do you think that Captain Reynolds can protect you? We have known where you are since you left our facility-"  
  
"Then how come you haven't come and gotten her?" asked Mal as he stepped forward. "For a big and powerful program bent on riddin' us of all these seers, you sure take your time in getting around to gatherin' them up." The man didn't say anything. "You see how I see it is you haven't done anything 'cause whatever it is you need this girl here for, you need her sane, and whatever you did to her screwed up all your little plans you had for makin' use of your new prize." Still no anwer from the man.  
  
"Which also means that when she ain't right she's downright dangerous, hell I've seen that first hand. So, I'm thinkin' here that since she ain't no real use to you right now all messed up as she is, you came here for something else. Gettin' the girl and her brother would just be a bonus." The two lackeys looked at each other, and backed away from the catwalk. Only their boss remained close enough to look directly at Mal.  
  
"You're a very intuitive man Captain, I must congratulate you on your perception. You're right, we did come here for another reason, and if you comply with us I might leave with only one item for now."  
  
"What you want?"  
  
"Three days ago 761A-367 purchased stolen government property from a dealer in the XaiXai Market, return it to us, and we will leave without the..." The man's lips curled as he looked at River. "Invalid." Mal looked down at River who was frowning heavily.  
  
"You want me to blow that SOB away, just let me know." River shook her head, a strange smile breaking across her lips.  
  
"The snake speaks with only one tongue, the other cut off by the black knight. Let him take his piece of gold, it will tell him nothing, and give me everything." Mal looked back down at the PSIOPS freaks, their hands were clasped in front of them covered in blue latex. Personally, he wanted to just blow every single one of them away, but River had more experience in this area so he decided to let her play this her way. Besides, he could use them as cannon fodder for any of Niska's remaining men.  
  
"The girl wants to play it your way, keep your hands where I can see 'em, and you'll get your disc." The two lackeys raised their hands, but the man in charge began to ascend the staircase. Mal turned his gun on him, only to have River push it aside.  
  
"It's all right Mal, I do not fear him as I fear the other hands of blue always in two."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"If nightmares could only speak beyond my screams." The man in the charcoal suit looked at Mal, and then back at River who turned, and walked off into the gloom. Mal kept his gun trained on the Alliance goon, he really reall wanted to shoot him, but Mal wasn't the type of man who killed a person without provocation.  
  
"You have a solid distaste for me don't you captain?"  
  
"Just for men who cut up little girl's brains for their own sick pleasure." The man smiled drily.  
  
"I can assure you Malcolm there was no preverse pleasure involved, merely protocol, and procedure." Mal snorted.  
  
"You know I've done a lot of things in my life, but at least I can look back on them and say I did what was right. You? You don't even care that you've left an innocent girl's mind fucked up for the rest of her life, just so long as you get what you want." Charcoal-suit shrugged.  
  
"One must break eggs to make an omelette. I am glad that you agreed to make this exchange, I am sure that with the Shepard on board you have been made aware of his side of things."  
  
"Excuse me?" A look of surprise spread across the PSIOPS agent's still features.  
  
"Oh, so you don't know? Well I suppose it will all come out in due time." River returned from wherever she had been carrying the gold disc. Mal could see it's polished surface shimmering in the dim light of the cargo bay. Cautiously she handed it over to the man who examined it carefully, and then walked down the stairs of the catwalk.  
  
"Thank you for your cooperation Captain Reynolds." River's eyes widened, and a panicked shriek tore from her lips.  
  
"NO!" Mal drew his gun, the .45 punching three quick holes into the back of the man sending the disc, and a gun with a silencer on the end flying out of his hands. Down below the lackeys fired up at the catwalk, lead ricocheting off of the metal rungs as Mal grabbed River, and ducked down out of the line of fire.  
  
"You gorram sons-of-bitches have to do better than that!" River screamed as part of the catwalk exloded in front of them from the hail of gunfire. Rolling onto his back, Mal reloaded his gun, and fired a few cover shots over the edge. One of the PSIOPS agents was carefully climbing the stairs, his gun drawn as he prepared to fire on Serenity's captain, only to have a large barrel of spare engine grease rolled down the stairs on top of him. Mal looked over at River who was staring over the lip of the stair at the man who was now having to drag himself across the floor as a result of his broken leg.  
  
"Surrender now, and relinquish your firearms."  
  
"Don't," said River. "They will let all of your beautiful rubies out with their steel scalpel."  
  
"Wha-" Mal looked down as a long silver rod landed on the catwalk with a dull 'clang'. As he stared at it he felt an unusal power emenating from the small device, it's thin form vibrating steadily as it began to emit a dull hum that increased in picth as it sat on the metal grilles. Normally, he would have kicked whatever it was away, but Mal had no ability to move or speak. It felt as if his entire body was being shaken hard, his temples throbbing, and pain shooting through his body as the little wand sat there huming. For a second he thought that he was crying, until the fluid ran over his lips, seeping through the cracks between them, and innudating his mouth with the taste of blood.  
  
"The human body can bleed out in 3.5 seconds." Mal had almost forgotten about River, but the sound of her voice somehow managed to break through the hum. In front of him he could see the sweep of her dress, and then her foot as it sent the wand flying out into space. Almost immediately Mal regained his ability to move, and fell over onto his side gasping. Below the men reloaded their guns in preparation for a more agressive assault.  
  
"We're humped!" River looked up at Mal as he backed against the wall, and checked the clip in his gun. Just like he thought, he was down to no more than six bullets, and without a clear shot there was no way he was coming out of the fight in one piece. Down below he could hear the slow methodical steps of the PSIOPS agents as they approached the catwalk, just as sure of their victory as Mal was of defeat. Tensing for a win-or-die situation Mal waited as the men took another step towards the stair, only to stop as something distracted them. Wide-eyed River grabbed Mal as she tried to drag the both of them into the corridor at the rear of the walk.  
  
"Damnit River," hissed Mal. "What the hell is wrong with you?"  
  
"The vulture approaches. The blue hands will suffer his wrath, but we must fly!" Mal looked over at the other end of the catwalk, and carefully backed away from it. Down below the PSIOPS agents turned towards a shadowy figure hovering in the rear of the cargo bay, the two men for the first time in their lives feeling nervous as the wraith formed into Niska who smiled evilly at the two.  
  
"Hello, may I help you?" The first agent's neck exploded into an ocean of red as a bullet silently ripped through it. His comrade too shocked to fire as Niska apprached stealthily.   
  
"Don't worry," he purred as he leveled his weapon at the other man's chest. "I didn't forget about you. I just wanted to see the look on your face when I aided your friend." River screamed silently into Mal's hand as another thud sounded from the cargo bay. Carefully, he stood up, and towed the girl into the corridor that led down to the hatch that opened in the hall outside the cockpit.  
  
"Malcolm?" The blood froze in Mal's veins as Niska called his name. "I know you can hear me."  
  
"Don't answer," gasped River. "He wants you to open your ocean to him, so that he may see the River that his eyes cannot lay upon."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"My blood is not natural to the vulture, it makes him sick, and wary of a prey that he cannot master. If he can look upon me Mal, he will know me, and the hunt will no longer be for you." Mal looked down at River, over at the hall entrance, and back again. He didn't know why that had made sense, but he knew that if his interpretation wa right he was in a world of shit.  
  
"Worlds are made up of either gases or rocky cores, they are not made of feces." Mal shook his head, and then paused.  
  
"I thought Wash said you couldn't see in my head?" River smirked eerily.  
  
"I can't see in it, I can 'feel' it. I don't always have to swim to get wet."  
  
"How long do you plan to stay in silence Mal? Do you really think that I will not find you?" Niska was really starting to get on Mal's nerves. Pulling River aside, he kept his ears open for any of the other man's men.  
  
"River where is Jayne and the others?" Five shots sounded from somewhere on Serenity.  
  
"Jayne is killing wolves, Book is guidng Wash and Zoe through the darkness, Inara is sheltered inside of her hollow walls, and Simon is carving the vulture's talons out of Kaylee and Jordan."  
  
"What about Selma?" River smiled, a new light dancing in her eyes.  
  
"My lady in arms who has given me the channels to the hidden waters of my ocean lies in waiting for the time to strike down the vulture, but her body is still drunken with liquors made foul."  
  
"You're saying she's on our side?"  
  
"I'm not speaking in riddles Mal. Someday you will know all the goodness that lies inside of her, and the beauty that she guards. If only there were more like her, into darkness I never would have tread." Mal moved towards the end of the hall, but River didn't follow.  
  
"River get down here!"  
  
"No, I must lie in wait. The vulture will find me first Mal, you must only know where to look." With that she headed back for the catwalk. Swearing under his breath, Mal took off down the corridor, dropping through the hatch he landed in the sitting room just one deck down from the cockpit. Creeping through the darkness he stepped out into the gloom, only to feel the muzzle of a gun pressed against his spine.  
  
"Jayne?"  
  
"Guess again." Niska pulled the .45 automatic that Mal was carrying out of his hands. "I told you that I would find you, now I would like you to take me to your cockpit."  
  
"Why? You already have a ship, and you got me."  
  
"No, I have you, but not who has helped you. I want you to take me there so that I may talk to them."  
  
"How Niska, there ain't no one up in the cockpit."  
  
"No, but your intercom is."  
  
***  
  
Simon sat staring at Kaylee and Jordan who were now recovering from their surgeries. Kaylee had taken forever, bleeders everywhere around the wound, and to make matters worse she would have an ugly scar probably for the rest of her life.   
  
If she even made it through the night.  
  
Right now she was barely breathing, her skin pale from blood loss, and the only available donor was Simon. Sitting next to her he watched as his life poured through the clear platic tubes into the young woman, his body already feeling the strain, but in his mind she was one patient he could not lose.  
  
"You're no use to her if you're dead." Simon looked over at the floor, and saw Selma Ennes sitting up. Her blue eyes were clear despite the traces of the sedative in her system, her mouth set into a firm line of determination as she hefted herself up off of the cold tile. Tam watched as she scanned the inert body of her son, anger clouding the pale pools of sapphire until they looked almost black.  
  
"Who did this? Never mind, I need to leave this place." Simon looked over at the door. It was still sealed shut, River's handiwork was usually detailed, and almost difficult to undo. Selma walked over to the entrance, pulled off the control panel, and examined the jumble of wires on the other side.  
  
"She rerouted the access codes into a subprocessor that is part of the backup system that opens the doors only when a signal is sent indicating an emergency." Putting the panel on the floor, the archaeologist reached inside, and removed part of the complex circutry. Immediately the door slid open revealing the backside of one of Niska's men. Moving swiftly, Selma kicked the man in the back of the shin, causing him to cry out in agony, and drop his gun. Slamming her hand into his face, she stepped back as he slumped to the floor unconscious. Picking up the .22 handgun that he had dropped, she walked over to Simon, and closed the shunt vavle to the tubes he was using for the transfusion.  
  
"Rest, you'll feel better when this is over." As if on command, Simon slumped forward. His eyes drooping as Ennes carefully eased him into a different reality. Tightening her grip on the weapon, she turned towards the door, and stepped out into the shadows stopping only to look over at her injured son.  
  
The hunter had just become the hunted. 


	7. Into The Abyss

Fragile by Proxii Bleu  
  
XIV  
  
Selma Ennes was rapidly beginning to hate the dimly lit interior of Serenity. For one it made it hard for her to see, and two it caused her to overuse her still taxed abilities. At the most she had to rely heavily on her other senses, and even then it was still like wandering around in the dark. With that in mind there was one good thing to say about the Alliance - they always had plenty of light.  
  
Pausing to rest against one of the walls in the corridor, she took some time to think. In her short thirty-five years of life she had lost a husband, her entire family during the Alliance / Independent War, ended up being part of an underground ogranization that specialized in the care and aid of highly emptahic citizens, and now had assigned her to find one of three missing gold discs.  
  
Normally, she would have passed on such an assignment, but the backstory behind it had caught her interest. Over eighty years ago the Alliance had discovered ruins on Persephone that indicated that a highly advanced civilization had once lived there. The city itself was over five-thousand years old, and apparently part of a huge metropolis that had spanned an area roughly the size of California on mankind's ancient homeworld Earth.  
  
No one knew what had happened to the species that had originally lived there, but they were gone, and the Alliance had merely reburied the city to make way for colonists. However, since that time other sites had been found, making it obvious that a large civilization had once spanned the majority of the known worlds. No one knew where they came from, or where they had gone, but like others Ennes had a sneaking suspicion that they still existed. She also suspected that on this particular subject the Alliance knew more than they were saying, but getting in contact with their operatives was proving to be difficult.  
  
The escape of over two-hundred captives from River's 'school' had caused a crackdown on security in all black-ops programs which meant that without some ingenious acts on the part of their spies, getting data out was next to impossible. However, her organization was already working on a way to get around that obstacle. It just took time.  
  
In the meantime, she wondered what Gordon's assignment was on Serenity. He was higher up on the food chain than she, taking orders straight from the director of their organization, but without the right clearance she had no way of knowing what he was up to.  
  
However, it was interesting seeing him pose as a Shepard.  
  
Standing up from her seat next to the wall, Selma wandered down the hall keeping her eyes and ears open. She knew the big mercenary, whats-his-name, Jayne was lurking somewhere nearby, but she couldn't get a fix on him. Rounding the corner, she walked right in front of him where he was waiting with Vera.  
  
"Going somewhere?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm looking for Mal."  
  
"What for?" Selma fought the urge to roll her eyes, the last thing she needed was twenty questions. Letting out a sigh, she prepared to try for an explanation when a shadow loomed up behind Jayne.  
  
"Shit." Without blinking an eye, she fired past the mercenary's head, a neat hole forming in the forehead of the man standing behind him.Turning, Jayne looked down at the corpse behind him, and then back at empty space. Selma was gone.  
  
"Momma always said don't take your eyes off a witch."  
  
***  
  
Mal was beginning to wish that he was dead. After he had tried to convince the captain to help him lure River out of seclusion, and failing Niska had shot him twice in each leg. As a result Mal was squirming on the floor in his own blood trying his best not to scream since that would only encourage the madman. Pacing back and forth in front of the captain, Niska tapped the muzzle of his gun against his cheek as he thought.  
  
Malcolm staying true to his nature had refused to tell him who had helped in his evasion of the killer, sticking to insults, and absolute stubborness. Threats hadn't worked, and neither had shooting him in the legs. Stopping his endless walking in circles, he strode over to where Malcolm lay, and pressed the gun into the younger man's arm.  
  
"Tell me who helped you."  
  
"What if I say fuck off?"  
  
"I'll shorten your arm by about a foot." Mal hauled himself up into a better sitting position. He had no idea where River was at, she said that she would be in the cockpit, but the only thing there when they arrived was empty space. Thinking fast, Mal decided to stall until he could think of a way of of his current predicament.  
  
"She won't come to you." Niska arched his eyebrows. Here was an improvement in the situation.  
  
"She? You mean a woman was behind this?"  
  
"She's a girl, not a woman."  
  
"Ah, now I see. Why won't she come to me?"  
  
"I don't know, might be because you shot her best friend in the chest." Niska closed his eyes and smiled.  
  
"Vengeance is such a fickle being, you never know how it will manifest. She kills half my men, and leaves you hanging. I wonder what she would say to you now? Hmm?"  
  
"Don't look behind you." Niska turned just in time to see the fire extinguisher before it connected with the side of his head. Lurching backwards, the gun spun out of his hand into the shadows, leaving him with nothing but his bare hands. Yet that still gave him the advantage. Staggering to his feet as the extinguisher hit the ground, he glared at River with his beady little eyes. She stood against the wall, her hands clasped behind her smiling eerily. Turning, she winked at Mal before focusing back on Niska.  
  
"You wanted to see me?" The madman stood carefully, the world still rocking benath him from the blow. Cautiously he sized up the girl, before approaching. She was small, and her type was usually done in with a quick twist of the neck.  
  
"Why yes, I've never met someone so evasive." River lifted her eyebrows.  
  
"I've never met a homicidal maniac. I belive this is a first for both of us." Niska smiled grimly, his legs taking up more of the space between them.  
  
"I'm curious, why come out of hiding now?"  
  
"Because I wanted to give you something."  
  
"Oh really? What?" River smiled ferally.  
  
"What you've always wanted. All the pain you could ever desire." River's hands came from behind her back revealing the silver wand that had been flung at Mal by the PSIOPS agents. Niska looked down at the silver device, his eyes widening as it snapped open with a dull click.  
  
"You intend to frigten me with a toy?" The wand was now buzzing softly, it's whine picking up as River stepped forward.  
  
"Go ahead, take it if you want." Niska reached for the silver wand only to find that his body was frozen. Struggling he tried to overcome the unseen force keeping him in place, but found that at best he could only stumble backwards as the girl advanced. Already his body was starting to vibrate in time with the tiny device, pain lacing up through the back of his skull down into his chest as River kept up her unrelenting approach.  
  
"Do you like the pain Franz?" she hissed, her eyes taking on a dangerouns gleam. "Does it excite you? Make you feel like a man, instead of an impotent little fool?" Niska moaned in agony as he literally fell into the hall. Blood leaked from around his eyes into his mouth as River stepped forward, but kept just enough distance between them so that the wand didn't complete it's true purpose.  
  
"Tell me Franz do you love it? Am I giving you everything that you want when you torture your victims?" Niska shrank back into a corner, the wand shutting off as River stood over him. In her hand was a slim .22 mm. Lifting it she pressed it against his forehead.  
  
"Would you like to see a nightmare?" Niska shook as the corridor vanished, turning into a sterile room where he was strapped down into a chair. Long needles had been drilled into his skull, and as soon as he realized this he felt them begin cutting into his brain. The pain ten times as bad as what he experienced at the mercy of the wand. Screaming he rejoiced as reality was returned to him. River stood there unmoving, the gun still resting between his eyes.  
  
"I would run if I were you. I would run until the blood flies from your legs, and the air burns your lungs. I would run, for I would not want to see what happens when you realize I am behind you." Niska scrambled to his feet, eyes wide he backed into a wall as he tried to escape. Out of the shadows Selma stepped into the dim light, the gun extended.  
  
"Wait!" Niska turned around, the gun barking once as she fired a round into his shoulder joint. "Call us even." For the first time in his life, Franz Niska ran like hell. Even with his injuries he kept running until he reached the cargo bay, where he collected what was left of his men, and boarded his transport. Serenity shook as he departed, it would be a long time before he bothered Mal again, but when that time came there would be two names added to his list. Selma came over to where River stood, the girl was slumped against the wall panting slightly. Her little move had cost her dearly, and her head pounded stadily as a result.  
  
"You should not have done that."  
  
"I had no choice, He would have merely come back if I had relied solely upon the wand." Selma took the silver device from the girl's hand. On the one hand she should retrieve it, on the other the crew needed to know about it's capabilites. She decided to give it to Mal before she left.  
  
"Remember what the agents did to you at the academy-"  
  
"I am not a monster, I would never rape a person's mind. I only acted in self defense, not in self interest."  
  
"Remember that. It's what seperates us from them." Ennes took the gun from River's hand, and let her rest against her side.  
  
"You could come back with me, to one of our teaching centers?"   
  
"No, I know I'll be fine. Besides, Simon needs me. We make each other better." That was the last thing River said before passing out on the floor. Walking into the cockpit, Selma looked down at Mal who was still sitting in his own blood.  
  
"You know, one of these days you're going to get yourself killed." Mal smiled wanly.  
  
"That obvious huh?"  
  
XV  
  
"Ow." Mal carefully put his weight down on his legs, the pain casing him to grind his teeth as he tried the crutches Simon had give him. Kaylee had already been carefully relocated to her bedroom, leaving a sore Zoe, and tired Wash to watch him make his first attempt at walking. Behind him Simon guided him as he hobbled towards the door.  
  
"Easy, you don't want to push it."  
  
"I know my limits doc I-" Zoe lifted an eyebrow as Mal crashed down onto the floor. Niska had broken her ribs, but her baby was okay. As a result her normal sense of humor had returned.  
  
"Sir, I think walking is performed in an upright position."  
  
"Ha ha." Despite Simon's atempts to help, Mal managed to get back on his feet. Hobbling out into the hall, he watched as Inara glided around the corner.  
  
"Mornin'."  
  
"Good morning Mal, I see you're back on your feet."  
  
"Jealous?" Inara's mouth turned down at the corners. Mal waved his hand at the Companion's dour expression. "Never mind, how are you Inara?"  
  
"I've been better. I could do without the stench of the cleanser Wash used to remove the blood."  
  
"Well when we get planetside I'll open the place up for ya."  
  
"That's all I ask." Inara disappeared in the general direction of the mess leaving Mal to continue his hobbling down the hall towards the cargo bay. Kaylee was still out of it, only coming to long enough to point weakly at her water glass, or a blanket. Zoe was on limited duty, and Simon was shadowing him.  
  
"Doc, I think I'll be okay."  
  
"Mal you were shot four times-"  
  
"I've had worse. Look if I need you I'll just holler or something." Simon chewed his lip thoughtfully for a minute, and then went back to medbay. Alone, Mal made his way to his orginal destination. Pausing on the catwalk he saw Book talking with Selma. She had decided ultimately that she wanted to be let off on Brian's Folly, a small world at the core of the territories. Her son Jordan was catching a small nap until they arrived, but in the meantime she was talking to the Shepard. Listening in, Mal realized something strange. It sounded as if she knew Book, and on a more personal level than just passing strangers.  
  
"So, do you think she'll recover now?" Selma frowned as she checked her bags. Her blonde hair tumbling into her face.  
  
"I think so, it's just up to her now. River is stronger than she knows, and to be honest with you Book I really don't want to talk shop right now." The Shepard nodded, and looked out one of the nearby windows. Wash was beginning the apprach to the planet, the red hot glare of the atmosphere filling the room with a soft red glow.  
  
"So how's Jordan?"  
  
"No worse for wear, but I san see that the loss of his father is on his mind."  
  
"Bruce was a good man, I think I said that once." Selma laughed softly.  
  
"More times than I can count." A long silence stretched between the two as the ship touched down on it's scheduled landing pad just outside of Yau, one of the major cities. Little did Mal know Selma had managed to send a communique to her organization requesting a pickup. Book took the pause as an opportunity to exit, giving Mal the greenlight to make his way down the stairs that led to the catwalk. Ennes looked up from her bags as the captain joined her in the cargo bay. Smiling she walked over to where he stood, her blue eyes scanning through him as she approached.  
  
"You know, there are times when I wonder about settling down." Mal's lips twitched as he stared at the empath. For some reason he wasn't that nervous around her anymore.  
  
"Naw, you'd be bored in a week."  
  
"Probably, but you make the thought entertaining." Selma grinned at the surprised expression on Mal's face.  
  
"Well I don't exactly court Readers."   
  
"Opposites attract, or so I'm told." Behind them the doors to the cargo bay opened revealing the early morning sun. In the distance Mal could hear the thrum of the city, already busy despite the early hour. Selma walked over to Mal, a mere three inches seperating them.  
  
"You know, when I first came aboard you thought about me lying on a beach watching a sunset."  
  
"A man's entitled to his fantasies."   
  
"Maybe someday it'll be a reality." Ennes let her lips slide across Mal's before stepping back, and heading for the loading ramp. Her son Jordan came running down the tairs, his duffel bag slung over his good shoulder, and his pace unrelenting as he bolted out into the open air. Selma laughed at her son's antics, her slim form retreating into the fresh morning light as she headed for the crowded streets of Yau. Mal turned away as Wash came down the stairs, followed by Jayne.  
  
"We've got a run, guy wants us to deliver five tons of fertilizer to Steelhead."  
  
"How much?"  
  
"Five-hundred credits." One hundred credits for each ton. Mal hobbled about on his crutches in order to get a better look at Wash and Jayne as they prepped the mule. Having survived Niska, PSIOPS agents, and now four gunshot wounds Mal was for once feeling optimistic. Turning towards the stairs, the world went sideways as he fell to the floor.  
  
"DAMNIT!"  
  
Laughing, Wash barely managed to duck as a crutch sailed past his head. His smile faded as Jayne looked at the bruise raising on his arm, and then at the pilot. His eyes narrowing as he glared at the smaller man.  
  
"I just want you to know this is going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me."  
  
"ZOE!"  
  
THE END 


End file.
